Torn Apart
by 0utcast
Summary: The flock finds a new and improved Eraser that can easily tear them apart. Their lives become even more troubled by this discovery, especially when blind and enemy meet.IggyxOC.R&R appreciated!
1. Split

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Ari, Anne, Jeb, Nudge, Max, Fang, Iggy, Angel, Total, or Gazzy. **_

_**Note: The first few chapters ain't all that good, they get better, I promise, from chapter four on up! (save one certain chapter I despise) But please read on, review, chapters get better as they go!**_

_**Chapter One**_

_What the heck is that thing?_

The first thought of Nudge as she gazed into the black and white screen in the control room of Itex. Her fingers had paused on the keyboard, previously punching in codes and passwords as she had been searching through files. Then a video file came up, and now she was frozen, as she recognized the being through the screen and to see that it was stronger, larger, and sharper, than the others before it were. However, it made no movement except the gentle bounce as it lay in the green liquid. It was in a tank, enough to put the whole flock in and still have plenty of room. The being inside the tank was around seven feet tall and fit the tank with about a five-inch gap on each side. Its fur swayed in the water but was undoubtedly a dark gray color; its legs were bowed and were built for running and jumping great lengths. It was thin, yes, but was definitely strong even though its lanky arms did not show it; there was something other than bone, muscle. Its black claws reflected the light that shone through the liquid and its jaw was partly open, revealing teeth, sharp teeth, teeth made to tear into the flesh of the flock.

"Nudge…?" Nudge jumped at the familiar voice. The eleven-year-old turned her head to the side to see Max, the caring leader.

Max had been peering over Nudge's shoulder since she had stopped typing and had yet to see the new and improved Eraser.

"What is it?" She asked, glancing at the screen, and then made a double take at the screen before staring at it, her eyes wide. The Gasman came up behind her and ducked under her arm to stand next to Nudge "C'mon" he said, turning to the screen with both his hands on Nudge's shoulder causing her to turn with him.

"The bomb won't-" he broke off when he saw the Eraser in the tank. Angel was standing on the table behind the computer with Fang off to the side who gave a dark look in the flock's direction. He rolled his eyes before pushing off from the wall to see what was taking so long. When he saw the Eraser he gave no notion of terror or curiosity, expect him to bottle up his fright if he had any at all.

The room had gone completely silent; ten eyes were on the screen, watching the enhanced Eraser bob up and down in the greenish liquid. Gazzy was muttering words to Iggy that explained what was on the screen but his words, and the flock's staring trance, was broken by the sound of an alarm. The lights faded and a single red light flashed as it twirled above the door. Frantic footsteps were heard outside the door, none of which were heading towards the door to the control room, but past it. As the alarm droned on, the footsteps faded and stomps were heard as people, whitecoats and Erasers' alike were heading down stairs. Angel opened the door slightly, to peer outside. She opened it more to stick her head through and to look up and down the hall. She ducked back into the room to the expecting flock.

"Clear!" she shouted above the alarm.

"Move out!" Max shouted, the flock obeyed. They all rushed out of the room, towards the luminous exit sign, but once they reached the stairwell, Max headed upwards. At first Nudge, Gazzy, and Iggy hesitated, Fang and Angel simply followed Max, as so did the rest of them once they figured that following would be the best thing to do.

The six of them broke out through the door to see that they were on the roof.

"Ready?" Max asked, slamming the door behind her. The flock nodded, before spreading their wings and jumping in the air. Nudge gave a hard push with her wings to become airborne, and continued to push to gain altitude, as so did the others. The flight after take off was easy, till Gazzy's voice erupted in the air, "We're not alone!"


	2. Back

_**Chapter Two**_

As Gazzy's voice beat into the avian children's ears, the Erasers were gaining altitude. The younger ones were frozen in flight, Fang was hovering, and his dark eyes were narrowed at the Erasers, Iggy was just looking towards the Erasers, his face expressionless. Suddenly, Max's voice broke through the cool night air and broke the terror trance

"Split up!" That was the one thing they needed to do, they were definitely no match for this large group of Erasers that made about five flocks (30 Erasers) ,with more strength and larger, lumbering wings.

"Meet at Georgia coast border!" She shouted. The flock gave no hesitation to follow her orders, Nudge and Angel flew away, Fang and Max in the opposite direction and Iggy and the Gasman went towards the southern coast, towards the smell of saltwater.

The pack of Erasers split once they saw the flock separate, some went after Fang and Max, Ari in that group. Only three Erasers went after Nudge and Angel, thinking that the little ones would be no harm but once they caught up with the mind reader, she would probably mentally influence them to fall to the ground at a higher altitude than her own. Four went after Gazzy and Iggy, not expecting any bombs since they were in flight, but the pair were always armed with their latest creations. The rest of the pack was sent back down to earth by Ari before he split the pack up. Max and Fang had made a quick escape thanks to her speedy flying ability, even though she still wished to see and fight Ari, face to face. Angel had more than likely already sent the Erasers after her and Nudge, to the ground with her mental abilities meaning Gazzy and Iggy still had to throw their trackers. Gazzy flew ahead, Iggy trailing behind, his hand skimming Gazzy's ankle as the eight-year-old flew towards the coast. Iggy could hear the beating wings of the Erasers as they got closer and closer, why was Gazzy flying so slowly?

"Hey Gazzy?" Iggy asked, his voice cracking slightly from lack of water "Could you pick up the pace?"

"Suuure…" Gazzy said in a singsong voice. He suddenly dived downwards, dragging Iggy with him.

"What, in heck, are you doing!" Iggy shouted over the rush of wind. The eight-year winged boy's reply was faint.

"Just trust me, okay?" Iggy just nodded, waiting for what was to come. He could hear the roar of the ocean getting closer, the beat of the Eraser's wings struggled to be heard over the crashing waves but were heard, nevertheless. They were close, yes, but whatever Gazzy had in store for them they would soon be blasted far far away, beyond the world and life. Now Iggy could practically taste the salt in the air, then he could feel spray of seawater as waves crashed against cliffs. Suddenly, Gazzy jerked upwards, causing Iggy to grab onto his ankle since his flight up was so quick and instantaneous. Iggy heard a large splash behind him, of course, the Eraser's wings were too heavy to make a quick change in direction, upwards, and they had not been trained by hawks and other birds of prey.

"Bombs away!" Gazzy shouted. Iggy grinned as he heard another splash be made as Gazzy dropped the bomb down into the watery depths.

The next thing Iggy knew, he and Gazzy were drenched in seawater and were blown upwards a bit by the explosion.

"Awesome…" was all Gazzy said before explaining to Iggy what he had just witnessed.

Iggy nodded every now and then as Gazzy explained, a toothy grin plastered on his face the whole time. Once the Gasman finished his short, descriptive speech, Iggy spoke up.

"I think we should be heading for the Georgia-Florida border line now, it's nearly dawn yes?" He asked.

"Yeah, it is" The blond-headed kid looked towards the dim outline of the rising sun.

"Let's go"

"Where are they?" Nudge asked as she paced the beach, her wings tucked in, neatly, against her back. Fang and Max were sitting on the beach watching Angel who was in the water, probably speaking to passing fish. Gazzy and Iggy were not there though they should have been by now.

"Maybe they had to drop their bomb!" Angel shouted from the sea. Max nodded before looking up to the sky with the Florida sun burning bright.

"Even if they did, they should be here by now." She said under her breath. Fang, of course, said nothing, Nudge however babbled on about, how they were supposed to meet at the beach before dawn, and how much time it takes for a bomb to detonate, and so on and so forth. Then a shadow engulfed her, silencing her, and causing her to look up. All the others looked up as well, they all saw a silhouette against the sun, two actually, one much larger than the other who was a couple feet smaller.

"About time you two got here!" Nudge shouted up to them before Iggy and Gazzy landed.

Both of them shrugged and grinned, "You should've seen the explosion though, would've been worth ten k." Gazzy chuckled, whilst Iggy was grinning widely. Nudge rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest

"Well you were still late" She muttered before turning to Max "Now what"

"Well did you find any files?" Max asked, standing up and brushing off the sand from her pants.

"Yeah, loads"

"Any mentioning us?"

"No actually, I was too distracted by the seven foot Eraser in a tank!" Nudge growled, unlike her usual self.

"Well then we'll have to go back" she said solemnly, brushing away a lock of hair from her face "But now I don't think we'll look for files on us" she said, making Nudge's jaw hang open "You should look for files on that Eraser and see how many there are. If they get enough of those, with wings, they could tear us to ribbons once they find us"

"Besides" Iggy butted in "It's not like we were caught, the alarm was just set off, probably from a fire or something" he shrugged, encouraging the idea of heading back to Itex.

"It's settled then, we'll go back to Itex first thing tomorrow, for now we need to get some rest" Indeed they did need rest, they had flown non-stop from Alabama to Florida, had stopped at an in-n-out burger restaurant and then, had continued to Itex. Their wings ached from the flight and from the run from the Erasers but none were wounded meaning that they would get an easy and peaceful sleep with no pain.

So sleep they did, in the shelter of a rock worn of water splashing against it that also smoothed it. In minutes, they were asleep, until the moon rose and they woke from their slumber, lifted into the sky, and returned to Itex.


	3. Missing

The six of them crept down the metal staircase slowly, wincing every time a loud _creak_ came from the rusting steps. However, no whitecoats came to shout at them, and no Erasers were there to tear them apart, no matter how many creaky steps they set foot on. They reached floor three soon, the floor with the control room, the floor they had been on before the alarm had gone off.

Max looked through the door, the hall was empty. She gave a thumbs up to the flock before stepping into the hall way on tip toes, followed slowly by Fang, then Iggy, Gazzy, Angel, and Nudge who had the niche of a back-up guard. Together, they crept towards the control room, flattening themselves against the wall.

"Footsteps…" Iggy whispered in Fang's ear, which passed the message on to Max. They stopped, and pushed themselves harder against the wall. A white coat came from a second hallway, he had large spectacles, which he used to study the clipboard. He passed the flock, not even noticing them as he intrigued himself with the writing on the clipboard. Once he rounded the corner to another hallway the flock let out the breath that they had unconsciously, been holding.

They continued, only to be stopped again, not by Iggy, but by Nudge.

"Hey guys," she whispered hoarsely so all could hear "Look what I found" she held up a white lab coat that was tall enough to fit her. She gestured to a storage room they had passed.

"Good Idea" Gazzy whispered as he pulled a lab coat on, only to find that the sleeves went over his fingertips by an inch as with the rim. Soon they were all fitted with white coats; Nudge had found a clipboard and some glasses she used as she pretended to read the clipboard, just in case a white coat came by.

They were ready, and now they walked down the hall in quick strides, with a confident look on their faces since now, they did not have to lean against the wall. They reached the control room in no time at all. Nudge handed Fang the clipboard before proceeding in, shrugging off the coat and flexing her fingers, preparing to type a marathon.

Angel was the first to follow her in, then Gazzy and Max, Fang and Iggy stood watch at the door, Iggy all ears, Fang all eyes.

Nudge started to type in codes once Max shut the door behind her. Nudge spotted a tool bar, and typed in the word 'Eraser'. Files started to pop up, all with names, like John, Jake, Bill, et cetera, until she reached one, which had the word 'Failed Experiment' imprinted on the name section.

"Here it is," she whispered. Max came by her side to see the document.

"Failed…?" she said, looking at the picture of an Eraser in wolf form.

"It says that they put twice as much lupine DNA in this one, thus meaning this Eraser also got the personality of a wolf, rebellious, loyal, protective, all that" she said, her eyes dancing over the screen "She was born in Arizona but the doctors reported her dead to the parents. She was taken to the School to be experimented on. They figured out that she could go on for days without food and only a few gulps of water, can travel for many days without tiring, a wolf's stamina, has enhanced senses especially sense of smell, and-" She broke off when she heard an unfamiliar voice out side the door.

"What are you two doing here?" A whitecoat asked either Fang or Iggy, but he didn't wait for an answer.

"You two should be back in the lab"

"Yes sir" that was Fang. Two sets of uneasy footsteps were heard from the door, both heading in a different direction and fading.

"What were they guarding anyway?" The whitecoat asked him.

The doorknob turned "They seemed to be uneasy, on edge, nervous" The whitecoat continued to speak to himself as he pushed on the door. Suddenly the alarm sounded, causing the whitecoat and the avian kids to jump. The whitecoat had only gotten the door to budge when the alarm rang. Angel stood next to the door, her hand pulling down the trigger to the fire alarm.

"Good heavens!" The whitecoat cried "Not another fire!" His footsteps were lost in the alarm.

Nudge hit the print button and papers spewed out of the printer. Gazzy collected them before rushing out the door and towards the exit sign, like last time, but this time he gave no hesitation to join the sea of evacuating whitecoats and Erasers. The rest of them immediately followed, Nudge pulling her own lab coat back on before following the pink highlighted hair of Max. Ever since the whole makeover thing in New York she had gotten used to seeing Max with pink highlight even though they were fading, and used to seeing Iggy having his ear pierced with golden ring and his hair spiked, a flaming red, with black tints at the edges, as if he had been electrocuted. The pink hair made it easy to follow Max, which was carrying Angel in her arms. Fang was waiting at the exit door, and ushered the flock into the stairwell.

"Hurry!" Max shouted behind her as she ran up the steps, tearing away her lab coat and dropping it to the side.

Nudge, Gazzy, and the rest of the flock did the same, before following Max. They burst out of the door and immediately took flight once they breathed fresh air. Once in the air Max shouted her orders

"Everyone hold on to each other!" She shouted. They all hesitated before linking arms, wondering what was to happen. Once Fang linked an arm with Max, they all knew what was to happen

"Hold on!" Max's body started to burn as she spread her wings and used her ability to fly at the speed of light.

It was all a blur, at first the city passed below them, than Disney world, forest, lake, highway, border patrol, then it all stopped.

The flock was at a high cliff with a cave engraved into it. They were somewhere in Georgia and they were all dead tired, especially Max who slipped into the cave and almost instantly fell asleep. Then she realized, to her horror, Iggy was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Iggy?" Gasman interrupted her before she had the chance to cry out.

"Where is he!"


	4. F0873

_**Chapter Four**_

Iggy was trying to find the exit, but every time he tried to move in the direction of the crowd, someone would push him out. When the crowd thinned, and only twenty whitecoats were left in the hall, a voice on intercom spoke up.

"False alarm!" it shouted. The red flashing light turned off and the usual flickering fluorescent lights were turned on. He heard some of the scientists' breath in relief, when the voice came back. It had a frantic tone, worried and yet full of fear.

"Experiment F0783 has escaped! I repeat, Experiment F0783 has escaped!" The whitecoats began to be frantic again. Iggy heard doors slam as whitecoats rushed for safety from whatever Experiment F0783 was.

Then Iggy heard frantic footsteps, one pair, the person wore no shoes, just skin, wet skin. Then footsteps came afterwards, those people wearing shoes.

"There it is!" A rough voice called out "It's heading for the exit!" Iggy heard the sound of someone skidding around a corner and then heard the steps coming straight for him. A voice yelled at him

"Run!" Something grabbed his wrist and yanked him towards wherever the person was going. He felt sharp nails digging into his skin, almost claw-like, and the hand was wet, not from sweat or blood, but from some other liquid unknown to Iggy. He reluctantly followed after the person, practically having to fly to keep up with the quick runner. Then he heard the words he hoped he had not heard, especially in this building.

"Oh crud" The person said under their breath, still running.

"Aha! We got it cornered!" The click of a gun echoed in the hall as with the sound of a bullet being fired.

The person that had grabbed hold of him grunted in pain, but kept on running, practically dragging Iggy along. Iggy could sense that the person was in pain, but was amazed that he or she was still running at the same speed, perhaps quicker, than before they were shot. The people with guns started to run again, towards them but not getting any closer or any farther away.

"What is she doing? She is going to kill herself!" Iggy heard the voice of the gunman, but the crack of glass echoed in his ears. The person had launched themselves through a window, bringing Iggy through it as well. He yelped, and tried to spread his wings but the coat he was still wearing tangled them and there was no hope of flight.

He heard a _thud_ below him, a grunt, then he slammed into the person below. The landing was amazingly soft and the next words he heard amused him.

"Are you alright?" The person asked. He had been planning to ask that question, and he was shocked that this person had just jumped out of a three-story building, had run through a window to do so, and had asked **_him_** if he was alright. He nodded anyway "Yes, are you?"

"Bullet to the shoulder, some scratches from the glass, I'll be fine, I've experienced worse, but now we've got to get out of here" He felt eyes burn into his face "Think you could fly fast enough?"

Iggy went wide eyes "How-how" the person interrupted him.

"I recognize you from a file when I hacked into the computer system, but enough of that, can you fly whilst carrying weight?"

"Well… yeah sure"

"Just go as fast as you can"

Iggy smirked as the person grabbed his wrist as he spread his wings and jumped into the air. The take off was extremely hard, but he eventually reached altitude above the building, then he heard a small grunt from below.

"Not afraid of heights are you?" He asked the person.

"Somewhat" was the persons reply, and now that there was no noise echoing in halls he could recognize the voice as that of a female.

"Just I've never been this high up" she said.

"Which way is Georgia?"

"To your right"

"Okay, we'll head that way, the flock should be there… hopefully"

"Flock? There are more winged-people?"

"Only five others"

"Ah…" The girl seemed to be somewhat amused "and what is your name?"

"Iggy"

"Iggy…" the girl repeated, the name rolling off her tongue.

Iggy turned to his right and flew that way, slower now that he had to carry the person below but definitely faster than the gunmen who were now running on the ground in search for Iggy and the girl below.

"If I may ask, what is your name?"

"I don't know really" was the girl's reply "At first they called me my experiment number, then five years ago they started to call me 'Failed Experiment' because I rebelled against their ways"

"So what can I call you?"

"Just call me Fail"

"Fail? That's-uh…"

"Odd? Sure it's a word that means a negative thing but hey" He felt Fail shrug "it makes me laugh when I'm introduced to new people and see the look on their face" Fail chuckled, Iggy grinned.

"So… Iggy" Fail looked over the land "Who are the others?"

"Well…um- there is… Angel" he began hesitantly, until he realized, Fail was also an experiment, who had lived in the school and in Itex all her life, she deserved some information "she...can read minds, breath under water, talk to fish, and influence people to do certain things. I believe she once influenced the President to put an enormous amount of currency into the education fund" He heard another chuckle from Fail "and…" she urged him on.

"Then there is the Gasman, or Gazzy, he-"

"Why do you call him that"

"You don't want to know, you could get him to explain that, anyway, he's the older brother of Angel, the only two who are blood-related in the flock. Then Nudge, quite talkative, she doesn't really know when to stop talking or when she's made her point-"

"So she's more talkative than you?" Fail asked.

He grinned "I don't usually talk this much but, its just-I guess this is how much I talk when I describe the flock, anyway" He took a breath "I'm fully blind-" Fail interrupted again.

"How?"

"Well… I was experimented on at School for enhanced eyesight, everything went wrong and I became blind"

"Oh…" Fail said, "Go on"

"Fang, he's quiet, extremely quiet, if you try to get a filling conversation from him you are wasting your time. He is the second-in-command. Max is the first-in-command, she's the oldest, older than me by six months, Fang by four, and she's a good leader but-" He broke off.

"But what?" Fail asked, looking up to Iggy who seemed lost in thought "What about her"

"Well… she'd been having this voice in her head for some time now, and has been having these weird visions that lead us places. She got us to a toy store where we first figured out about Angel's influencing power. The voices also lead us to the Institute of higher living." He continued telling Fail all about the flock, meanwhile, the flock was in worry, great worry.


	5. Info

_**Note: This chapter is rather short so I will post Chapter 6 as well**_

_**Chapter Five**_

"Where is Iggy?" Gazzy asked, looking at each flock member. All of them slowly started to wear a look a sheer terror as they realized that Iggy was not with them.

"Does anyone remember grabbing him when we took off?" Max asked, her once sleepy eyes wide with the discovery that one of her flock was missing.

Everyone shook their head.

"Where was he last?" Nudge answered that question "Guarding the door with Fang." All eyes turned to Fang.

He shifted uncomfortably under their gaze.

"Well…?" Gazzy asked, longing to return to making bombs with Iggy.

"He-uh… well when the-uh whitecoat came to the door he sent us in different directions to… different labs." He said "I thought he'd find his way back to the… control room, but then the alarm sounded and-"

"So he's still in Itex?" Nudge asked, encouraging the usually silent boy to keep on talking.

Fang looked at her and nodded, not speaking another word, gaining a scowl from Nudge.

"But he could've gotten out" Gazzy said, making all eyes turn to him "I mean… he was wearing a lab coat so no one would know he was… an experiment" he said the word 'experiment' as if it were some foul word that should never be said again.

"Yeah… but Jeb could've been there" Max said. The hair on the back of their necks prickled when Max mentioned Jeb "Last we saw him was at Anne's; Anne is his boss, she works in Itex, he's more than likely going to be in there than back at school"

"He still could've gotten out" Gazzy muttered, his once high hopes now made low by Max's words.

Max held out her hand to Gazzy, Gazzy looked at it, confused.

"The file" Max said. Gazzy grinned sheepishly when he realized he was clutching the file they had gotten from Itex, since he had grabbed it from the printer. He handed the stack to her and asked the question on his mind

"When are we going to find Iggy?"

"When we know what we're up against" Max replied smoothly.

They all sat on the cool rock, looking at Max, all-eager to go find their missing comrade except Fang, who just seemed as dark as usual. Max handed a stack to Nudge, Fang, Gazzy, and Angel before flipping through her own. There were no pictures whatsoever, there were descriptions however.

"Dark hair, gold eyes, gaunt face" Nudge was saying from a paper in her stack "about 5'10", lanky, but muscled" she looked up at Max "There's only one of them"

"Well that makes life easier for us" Max said, before flipping through the pages once again.

"How can they have so much information on one thing?" Total asked as he stepped on one of the papers, leaving a small paw print behind. Gazzy shrugged, not saying anything as he looked, page after page, he grew more eager to find Iggy. All of his papers said something about a rebellious personality, and that this thing was scheduled for a 'reeducation' class three weeks from now. He finished the small stack he had received quickly, Angel was long finished and was playing with Total on the other side of the rock. Fang was leaning against a tree with his arms crossed over his chest while Max and Nudge were consulting over what they found in their papers.

"It says this thing has put ten whitecoats in the hospital, fatally wounded, one has been put in the ground. It's wounded five Erasers and it's scheduled to be reeducated." Nudge said quickly, having to repeat herself for Max.

Gazzy looked at them, _Could they be any slower?_, he thought, clenching his hand into a fist.

He was frustrated, the only other time he had felt like this was in New York when he was tired, tired of Erasers who had attacked them earlier on. If he was frustrated then, then what he felt now was beyond frustration and anger, a new feeling, a new emotion.

He snapped out of it when Max stood up from the rock, her face stern and solemn.

"The last time we saw this thing it was in a tank, guarded, and in a different form. It's probably still in its tank and seeing that it needs to be reeducated, it probably wouldn't harm Iggy if it found him" She said , giving little hope to Gazzy, but at least it was some amount of hope.

"So we can go now?" Fang, amazingly, asked, gaining attention from Nudge, Max and Gazzy. Angel was still playing with Total on the other side of the rock, out of sight from all of them except Nudge who was close to the edge of the rock. Angel looked over the edge, a grin on her face, but then scowled "Do we have to leave now? I was having fun" her lower lip jutted out and her eyes grew watery and wide.

Taking note of the queue all of them turned away from the Bambi eyes Angel was performing.

"No, we're leaving now, to find Iggy" Max said spreading her wings, still looking away from Angel who was probably probing her mind.

"No, we leave now, that is that" she ran, then jumped off the rock and beat her wings to become air borne. Nudge followed, then Gazzy, Fang took off at a stand still, then Angel who grabbed Total and hugged him to her chest. She whispered something to him that was drowned out by the wind once she unfurled her wings and flew.

So now they were off to find Iggy, wherever he may be, and off to confront something they had not expected, something that would leave them completely dumbfounded, even though they knew, deep inside their hearts, knew what exactly was to happen.


	6. The Past

_**Chapter Six**_

Iggy started to fly slower, his wings and muscles ached from having to carry Fail. They were probably in Georgia by now, and he was getting tired, fast. Fail noticed this and spoke up once he started to drop in altitude.

"You need to rest!" She shouted up to him.

"No, I'm fine" Iggy replied, forcing his tired wings to keep on beating. He heard a growl emit from Fail's throat

"No, you need rest, the ramifications are mine to suffer and I don't want you to drop enough altitude so I ram into a tree, better yet, a Semi!"

"Ugh… fine" Iggy replied in his own growl.

The drop of altitude was quick, especially with Fail shouting if he was to close to the highway or in an open space. Eventually he landed in a small clearing in a forest, so how Fail described it. He dropped to the ground in exhaustion once he felt he was close enough to earth.

"You were the one shot, I thought you'd be the first to go under the fatigue line, how do you last?" He could not see Fail shrug and grin.

"It's what I am, I can heal amazingly fast, cuts and bruises can heal in an hour or less, bullet wounds can heal in about twenty hours and my bones are practically like steel."

"Is the bullet still in you"

"Well…yeah but-"

"Just get it out" Iggy said, sitting up and looking in the direction where Fail's voice came from.

He heard a few grunts of pain as Fail worked the bullet out of her shoulder, which ached from both bullet and being held by the wrist from a person above for a couple hours. The last budge and the bullet was out.

"Aha!" She said, examining the bullet in her hand "It's from a handgun, Caliber to be exact"

"How do you know so much about guns?" Iggy asked, receiving an uneasy grin from Fail. She put an arm behind her head and looked away from Iggy's pale blue eyes.

"I've experience with them, I've lived in School and in Itex for all my fourteen-year-old life. I've been guarded heavily by guns so I get to know gun types and recognize bullets and-" she shut her mouth, scowling and studying the suddenly fascinating ant mound a few feet away from her.

"And… what?" he asked, leaning his head on his hand that was propped up on his knee. He frowned, the aura coming off of Fail said to him that she was basically having a flashback, her silence was awkward and he could tell that she had looked away from him.

"What happened?"

"It's just" Fail rubbed a hand on the back of her neck "I've been shot a lot in my life, most in critical areas" Iggy froze at this. He looked at her, or, at least tried to.

"You mean you've been shot, perhaps in the heart, and you've survived?"

"Guess you could put it that way. I-I just can't really… die" she hugged her legs to her chest and rested her head on her knees, still looking at the ant hill "Well technically I've died before, once when they were getting a bullet out of my head, twice from a bullet to my lung, but so far I've healed from all of them except-" She broke off, her voice cracking with uneasiness.

"Except… except what?" Iggy's voice grew louder, in frustration that she was hiding from him, hiding her history, hiding the scars of her past life.

"Except… when they tried silver, I'm like their practice dummy, they try all these different things and use them against me to see if I heal or not. They've brought both metal and wooden daggers into my blood stream but- then they tried a silver dagger, slit my wrist, and it didn't heal till two weeks after, I didn't die since they took care of me, fed me blood and fluids. I've been stabbed by ten wooden daggers and shot with fifteen wooden bullets, I've been wounded by five metal daggers and 'incidentally' wounded by twenty metal bullets, one dagger of silver, and they discovered how I could die. It's sort of like the werewolf myth of silver." She said this slowly, choosing the words to say.

She looked at Iggy, who had his blind eyes wide when she revealed her past.

"I'm their shooting target, I'm a victim, just like you and your flock, but you escaped. They wanted me, wanted me to join the Erasers and try to hunt you down, and bring you back. They haven't tried reeducating me till last week, I'm scheduled to be reeducated in three weeks. I'm to become a victim of brain wash and then your flock would be my victim" A tear rolled down her cheek. Her voice cracked at the end of her speech, not from frustration, or anger, but fear.

Iggy listened to her, knowing that she had never said anything like that to anyone in the world, and why had she just told him, just told a blind person who can't even see what color hair she had, he didn't know. At first, he felt shock, of the way she was tested in both the School and Itex H.Q. Then he felt an emotion he hadn't felt in a long time, but he recognized it, and recalled its name, pity. He looked at her, in her general direction, wishing that, for once, he could actually see, see her, see tears of the past, but that was impossible.

"You were those things" he said "You said you _are_ those things, now, you were those things, there's a difference there" Fail grinned "I guess that's true" she stood up "Rest, I'm going hunting"

Iggy's brain clicked, hunting, hunting with no weapon? That's when he remembered the question he had wanted to ask her.

He opened his mouth to speak but heard her footsteps that began to fade. **_Another time another day,_** he thought to himself **_then I'll ask what she is_**. He blinked lazily in any direction, before lying down, curling his wings around him. He sighed when he put up his fist as if expecting to feel Gazzy's fist come on top of his own, and thus begin the stacking process the flock made with their fists before they slept. He missed them, dearly, but then wondered, how they were going to react to Fail, a girl with a bullet wound in her shoulder and saying that she was perfectly fine less she was hit with silver.


	7. Introductions

_**Chapter Seven**_

By now, the sun had long since sunk to slumber. The flock had, once again, broken into Itex, dressed as whitecoats, and had searched the building top to bottom. They discovered that most of the scientists didn't pay attention whilst they were in the halls meaning the flock was safe from being recognized. Most of the Erasers were in the labs, watching the whitecoats find something amazing only to find that there was a dust speck on the slide. They hadn't found him, he wasn't roaming the halls nor in a lab, he wasn't in a cell and he wasn't under any camera that they could see in the control room. He just wasn't there, in Itex, in its property, simply, nowhere. He had disappeared without a trace, but whatever had happened after they had left, something had gone on. Now Erasers were carrying large and small guns, all of which were loaded with silver bullets. They were armed with many daggers and one was roaming the place in wolf form, his teeth coated in a shiny metal. They checked the documents of what had happened the previous day and all it said was that the fire alarm was false and nothing else, no spotting of a blind boy with wings anywhere. Nudge had searched the whole database and had come up with nothing, nothing at all, Iggy was gone from this place, but where? Where was he, who was with him, was he dead or alive? There were so many questions but no one cared to answer as they lulled through the sky, their bodies aching from running all around Itex, avoiding scientists even though they weren't Jeb, and typing in codes to secret rooms and the whole searching process. They were indeed tired, and their wings were stiff from being curled against their backs the whole day.

Max flew ahead, simply wanting to reach the cave soon so she could get a good night's sleep. Nudge, Angel, and Gazzy were practically asleep while flying and even Fang looked tired around the edges of his eyes but other than that, gave no notion of a longing for sleep. Max was slowly closing her eyes then abruptly opening them, trying to stay awake, but the warm Florida-Georgia wind tempted her to sleep, it was the voice that kept her up.

_Now, Max, you know what happens when you sleep in the air_

_**Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me**_ Max retorted, wishing that the voice would just shut up for once.

_Just have fun, which should keep you up_

_**Fun? Remember what happened last time you said that? Angel influenced a person to buy a bear for her, a 40$ bear, just for her.**_

_Stay up, Max, have something to keep you up_

_**Like what? Counting sheep? I think I'll pass**_

The voice fell silent, for once, and for a good reason to. Now that everything was silent, she could hear the voices below.

"What is it?"

"Meat, you're the transportation device here, can't go to sleep while flying cause I don't want to get killed by a car because you're flying to low and because you don't got enough energy"

"I thought you said you couldn't die less the weapon was silver"

"I didn't say that, I said silver was my _weakness_, I could get my throat sliced with an iron knife and I'd still die, just because I can't heal that fast. Could you just eat now?"

"Well why you don't eat"

"I'll last"

The conversation below was getting closer, and it intrigued Max. Apparently, Fang had heard it as well, and had roused the dozing Gazzy, Nudge and Angel and had told them to be quiet, so they were, though Nudge seemed about to burst with questions.

"Fly…?" Gazzy cocked his head, before realizing whose voice he heard that was dry from dehydration.

"Iggy!" He bolted down into the forest.

"No, wait!" Max shouted after him, worried that the other person with Iggy was an Eraser holding him hostage, or something of the like.

Gazzy ignored Max and bolted through the branches, weaving in and out of them, glad that he had a smaller wing span then Max and Fang. He came to a clearing that had a small fire in a stone circle. A tall red and black haired boy was sitting cross legged on the ground with a blank look. There was no one else in the clearing but Gazzy didn't take heed of that.

"Ig!" He shouted before flying right into him. Iggy grunted as he was thrown back "Geez Gazzy" he said "Work on your landing" He sat up, and sensing that the eight-year-old was near, ruffled his hair.

Max and the rest of the flock came crashing through the trees.

"Iggy!" Angel shouted when she saw him. Total made a somewhat human-sounding bark, Nudge started to talk a mile a minute about how they had searched all of Itex to find him and how worried she was. Fang, of course, was silent as he stood away from the whole reunion. Max stood on the side lines, grinning and feeling filled now that she had found the missing member of her flock. But then her smile faded, there was something… different about him, like he knew something the others didn't, not even herself, then she remembered the other voice. She looked around the clearing, and only saw kids with avian DNA, there was no other person there that didn't belong to the flock.

Max cleared her throat, the flock looked at her, suddenly silent "Ig… that other person that was here" she looked around the clearing "where-"

"Is she?" he interrupted her. Max lifted a brow and nodded, Iggy usually didn't interrupt very often and usually only when someone was at a loss for words, Max, however, had not lost her words.

Iggy seemed lost in thought for a moment, before putting his hands around his mouth "Fail!" He shouted, his voice echoing in the forest.

"Fail? That's not-" Nudge began but was cut off with a cold, rough, voice. It seemed to be coming from all around, in no general direction did it come or go, which made Max on edge, now that she was unable to pin point the person's location.

"Well the flock sort of got my instincts kicking" a chuckle, who could chuckle at a time like this? Max looked at Gazzy, suspecting that he had emitted the voice since he had a natural art of mimicking voices. He just shrugged, meaning- Max looked at Iggy who had a smirk on his face.

"So this is the rest of the flock eh?" The voice asked.

"Yeah, now could you meet them eye-to-eye"

"Isn't just a glance good enough?" The voice responded with a low but non-menacing growl.

"Does anyone have silver, just, anything made of silver?" Iggy asked. Max stared at him, why was he so talkative? Above all asking for silver, it was as if his personality had changed in an instant.

"Okay fine!" A shadow like figure suddenly dropped from above, from the trees, the canopy. It dropped right next to Iggy, causing everyone to jump back from the flock member they had just been reunited with.

There, standing before them, was a girl, about Iggy's own age, and stood at about 5'8" and had lanky arms. Her nails were black and curved slightly and her skin was as pale as death, from lack of sun. She had dull and dark, boyish short hair with a chunk of it covering one eye. Her eyes were a dull orange and she herself, seemed to be a walking skeleton. Her shirt was a sleeveless gray top that was tight around her torso, revealing ribs and bone. Her pants were like cargo pants with many pockets, but the majority of the pockets were torn open by some unknown force. She had a gaunt face, with cheek bones that were clearly visible. She reminded Max of the walking dead minus the soggy skin, scars, and, wait- Max noticed a scar over her wrist bringing a thought. Was this girl… suicidal? She threw away the thought when Iggy started to introduce her.

"Max, Fang, Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, meet Fail" he said "Fail, meet Angel, Gazzy, Nudge, Fang, and Max" Fail nodded to each of them in turn.

"So… Fail?" Nudge began, unusually cautious "What kind of a name is that?"


	8. Discovery

_**Chapter Eight**_

The night was spent around the fire. Fail explained to the flock about her name, her past, but didn't go into detail when she mentioned the dagger and bullet tests. Once she had finished the flock was staring at her, Nudge and Gazzy had their jaws hanging low, Angel was probably entranced in the journey in Fail's mind, Fang was just silent but had a new look in his eyes, and Max was getting more and more uneasy by the moment.

Now the fire had died down and was just spewing out smoke. Iggy, Fang, Nudge, Angel, and Gazzy were all soundly asleep. Max was sitting at the dead fire's side, questions running through her mind. She was rubbing her temples as the night sky became a lighter blue and the whole forest was engulfed in a calming blue color except the trees remained black. Max had awoken an hour ago, and hadn't seen Fail asleep when she woke and hadn't heard her since. She sat cross-legged near the stone circle with her elbows on her knees and hands at her temples. She immediately straightened up when someone dropped a small pile of twigs on the opposite side of the stone circle.

"Sorry, didn't mean to break ya from your trance" Fail said uneasily. The girl still gave Max the chills, with pale skin, hardly any muscle or fat, she was practically just skin and bones with a voice that made Max's hair stand on end. Max groaned slightly "Oh, its nothing, just thinking" she looked at Fail, but looked away when she noticed those dull orange eyes were staring at her.

Fail suddenly jumped when she realized she was staring.

"Sorry, I know you're worried and all, but-"

"I'm not worried" Max retorted, fibbing through her teeth. Fail just received Max's glare with a smirk "I can sense your feelings, you carry the worry scent, unusual at this time of day" Somehow knowing that Fail could sense her feeling by scent didn't make her comforted, instead she grew more uneasy. Fail immediately cocked her head when Max switched her mood.

"Uneasiness…?" She said under her breath, though it was audible to Max.

Fail sighed before turning around to head back towards the forest "I'm going to get breakfast" She was completely thrown off guard by Max's next question "Don't you ever sleep?" Fail turned around "Well… I usually sleep in the afternoon, morning and night are my hours so… you get the point" Max just nodded, her eyes narrowed at her. Fail on the other hand, felt a wave of uneasiness emit from Max. She wondered why Max was so uneasy around her but, then again, maybe it was because the flock didn't know what she was yet, or maybe it was her appearance, she hadn't looked in a mirror for quite sometime now and she was sure she looked like death.

"Well… I'll-uh, be in the forest" She ducked out of the clearing before Max could ask any more questions. Max was beginning to emit wave after wave of uneasiness, rage, worry, sorrow, pity, it started to give her a head ache. She shook her head as she walked deeper into the forest, **_why is she so… tense?_** She asked herself, shivering from a chill that crawled up her spine that was visible through her skin. A twig snapped, she instinctively whirled around, her teeth bared and she snarling. Then she recognized the pale blue eyes and red hair. She grinned sheepishly "Sorry"

Iggy snorted "Sorry about the growl or the fact that I had to jog slightly to keep up, not to mention trip over loads of stuff"

"Well then you should've stayed at camp"

"Why aren't you there?" Iggy asked, a look of concern coming over his blind eyes.

"I was heading out to get breakfast" she replied.

"Oh… well you know Nudge is a vegetarian"

"Well that complicates things a bit" Iggy chuckled lightly. Fail looked at him, she had gotten a chuckle out of him, next step, get Fang to smile, even a little twitch at the corner of his mouth, that'd satisfy her.

"But I can find some plants for her" she said, hunching her shoulders and stretching her arms, hearing the satisfying crack of bone.

"You know the others told me that you were skin and bones"

"Oh I bet…"

"Was that one of the tests? To see how long you could go on without food"

"While running through mazes and on a treadmill, yeah"

"Ah…" he said, looking up to the canopy above "Is your shoulder okay?"

"The bullet wound? Yeah, healed while ya'll were asleep" she said, rolling the shoulder that had a scar from the bullet wound. She turned to look at Iggy, who was looking at her, his eyes seeming to be lost in thought.

"What?" She asked, feeling her face burn. Iggy grinned and shook his head

"Oh nothing" he said in a singsong voice. What was with him? He'd been acting… different since he flew away from Itex with dead weight to carry. He was acting, odd, different from when Fail first met him, less hesitant, more talkative, he was definitely something new now. Fail turned away, her cheeks a rosy red. Sure, he couldn't see but maybe he could feel heat, she sure could.

Iggy sensed Fail turn away, which made him grin. **_What is wrong with me?_** He asked himself, pondering. His thoughts were broken by Fail, by her voice, the voice that melted him every time, and he had no idea what that meant.

"Well, I'm off to hunt" He heard two or three footsteps before she was gone. He looked to his left, then his right, then turned to look behind him, which way was camp?

"Oh crud" he whispered under his breath. He heard something crashing through the branches above him, and nearly jumped his height, in the air, when something landed right in front of him. He could tell it wasn't Fail by the aura around it, and he could tell it was dead. Something else dropped behind him, which made him jump once more but not run, now he could recognize the aura as Fails'. He gestured to the dead thing behind him

"What is that?"

"Rabbit"

"What kind"

"Jack"

"Get anything for Nudge?"

"I've been gone for, what, two minutes, to get a meat meal"

"I get it, no" Iggy was smiling again.

"Good guess, now let's head back for camp" Fail looked at Iggy, her eyes moving up and down "You shouldn't have followed me, blind one" She said in a mocking tone. Fail picked up the deadrabbit and headed back towards camp, Iggy following behind her.

"Fail?" Iggy asked a few minutes after they started walking.

"Hmm…" Fail replied.

"I've been meaning to ask you, _what_ are you?"

"Well… I'm-uh, I'm a-" she was broken off by Angel's voice.

"They're back!"

* * *

Max had been quietly sitting by the fire since Fail had left to hunt. The others woke soon after Fail left. None of them said anything, but blinked slowly around the clearing, some staring at a certain tree or an ant mound as they wiped away the sleepiness from their eyes. Then they realized that Iggy was not there. 

"Where'd he go?" Nudge had asked, looking around the clearing at each face and tree. It did not take long for her question to be answered.

"They're back!" Angel had cried out, hugging her bear, Celeste, to her chest. At first, all they saw was Fail, holding a deadrabbit. Then she saw Iggy's flaming red hair and golden earring. Total began to jump up and down barking "Food!" repeatedly. Soon enoughthe rabbitwas roasting over the newly made fire. Max looked at her flock then to Fail. Already, the girl was looking better, her dull orange eyes were becoming a more yellow color and more full of shine, her hair was returning to a dark gray color, and her ribs weren't as noticeable as before. Max looked back to the flames, watching them flicker and fight their way to the top of the log.

Max looked up from the hypnotizing flames to her flock. She saw that Fail had once again gone missing into the forest, so quickly and silently, as if she truly were just a phantom of their memories.

"What do you all think of Fail?" Max asked abruptly, wondering what the others thought of the girl that made her skin crawl. It seemed that her words weren't her own, as if someone else was speaking them, like the voice.

The clearing was suddenly silent, every one of the flock was looking at Max.

"She's Okay" Nudge shrugged, strange that she hadn't spoken more. Gazzy had the same reply, Fang just nodded, then Max looked at Angel. Angel was lost in thought. She had her eyes closed, and everyone was looking at her, an unearthly silence overwhelmed them, even Nudge and Total were completely silent.

Angel's eyes flew open. She looked at Max, her eyes full of fear, fear she had never worn on her face since School.

"What is it?" Nudge asked, looking at Angel with worry in her eyes.

"It-its," Angel began "The… the Eraser, the one in the tank" She said "It's Fail" Her voice grew fainter the more she spoke, as if she were slowly losing her voice.

**Note: I know the whole 'Fail is the Eraser' thing is an oxymoron and a BFO (Blinding Flash of the Obvious), just bear with me alright? And reviews would be great! Negative or Positive.**


	9. Decisions

_**Chapter Nine**_

There was silence again. Fang's eyes had slightly gone wide, Gazzy was gaping, and Nudge looked at Angel with a look that pitied the young girl that could read minds. Max was cheering inside

_Aha! Knew it, knew she was up to no good, Erasers!_

_**Lost a powerful Ally, Max**_

_Oh shut up, voice_

_**Just wait**_

Now her spirits were dampened, then she looked at Iggy and was completely in sorrow's grip. Iggy had a complete look of disbelief spread on his face. If Max could read minds, she bet she'd be hearing him making up excuses, maybe say that Angel was wrong, defend Fail. It was a new look to him, a new look that made Max feel sorry for the blind one.

"Eraser…" Max immediately recognized the voice as Fail's but she sounded…different.

"That's what they called me," she said. The flock started to look around the clearing (besides Iggy) but saw no trace of Fail.

"First I was Experiment F0873, then an Eraser, now a failure" Her voice showed signs of hurt but no one paid attention to her tone.

Rage started to course through Max's body as she thought of all the possibilities. She could've been trying to befriend them, and then, just like that, turn her back on the flock, betray them. She could've been planning to lure them into an Eraser ambush; after all, she was one of them.

"Where are you?" Max stood up and looked around the clearing, in the nearby trees, speaking through gritted teeth.

"Where shouldn't matter" Was Fail's reply, in a growl "But now I'm gone…" Her voice faded after that. Now that the forest was silent, Max could hear running footsteps, distant, and heading north, far away from them.

"I can't believe it" Max turned to see Iggy shaking his head, "I trusted her"

"We all did" Max said, stepping toward him "But we now know what she was, and probably what she was planning" her words, once again, soundedlike they didn't belong to her, like something was influencing her to say them, or someone was simply speaking through her, using her just as an instrument for words.She placed a hand on Iggy's shoulder. Once he felt her hand he pulled away, his blind eyes now narrowed and his teeth gritted, then he relaxed.

"You're right," he said to Max, nodding "Eraser's can't be trusted fully" he said. Max cocked her head, why was he acting so strange. However, then again, each one of them was acting strange ever since the first encounter in Itex. Iggy suddenly stood up

"I'm going to go for a walk"

"You sure?"

"I've been here long enough to know the forest well enough to get around." He replied coolly. Max nodded, and watched as he easily walked into the forest, out of the clearing. She watched him until she saw that Gazzy was looking at her. He had a pleading look that said it all. Max nodded and he bolted after Iggy, making Max smile slightly the way he always wanted to know where Iggy went nowadays.

Iggy stuffed his hands into his pockets. He couldn't believe it, Fail was an Eraser. Maybe that's why she was so hesitant to say what she was earlier on. By now, it was afternoon, and the sun was sinking quickly, to him at least. Then he heard footsteps behind him, then a voice he recognized as Gazzy's

"Wait up" Gazzy's footsteps came to a halt right next to Iggy, and then continued to walk next to the blind teen at a slower pace.

"Hey Gazzy" Iggy said in a sigh.

"Did you know Fail was an Eraser?" Gazzy's question was abrupt, and though Iggy had been expecting it, he couldn't say thathe wasn't completely thrown off, especially by the eight-year-olds bitter tone.

Iggy shook his head "No, she wouldn't tell me"

"Good for nothing Eraser" Gazzy spat, though he felt somewhat bad by the way, Iggy reacted with a slight wince.

"They keep attacking us and all, but now, now they're trying to be friends with us and then… betray us" His voice got fainter and fainter as he saw the look of sorrow spread farther and farther into Iggy's expression.

Iggy shrugged when Gazzy hadn't continued to speak. Truth be told, he wasn't listening to a single word the kid said, all he thought about was Fail, her voice, her touch, he only wished he could've seen her before he knew what she truly was. Then he decided something that was raging in his mind since the flock discovered that Fail was an Eraser. He looked in the direction of Gazzy's voice, and smirked.

"What?" Gazzy asked, intimidation in his voice.

Iggy reached out and ruffled Gazzy's blond hair, his smirk became a scowl "I'm sorry"

"Sorry… sorry for wha-" Gazzy's vision went black and his body fell back to hit the ground.

Iggy shook his hand out, looking towards the sound Gazzy's limp body made when it hit the ground "Sorry Gazzy, but if I told you, you wouldn't let me go"

He sighed before heading deeper into the forest, groping his way through the trees into unknown territory.

He tripped, stumbled, hit his head, and stubbed his toes as he made his way through the forest that was gradually thinning. He had a deep gash under his eye from a branch and the side of his shirt was torn from the brush. He gained many scratches on his limbs and he was beginning to grow tired. He was panting and his throat hurt from calling Fail's name for an hour and a half, plus his wings felt like lead and refused to let him fly, probably tired. He stumbled over the ground and groped for a tree, to find none was there. He searched with his left hand, no trees, his right, still no trees. He stepped forward a few more paces, only to be greeted by pain. Something like a log hit his knees and he fell face forward. He put his hands in front of him expecting ground, but there was none. Then he hit the slope. The dirt was soggy and felt like soil and the slope was steep. He groped for the edge of the slope but found that he had already slid out of reach. The roaring of water beat into his ears, and his wings still would not snap open to allow him freedomby flight. A storming river was below him, he couldn't tell how far but he knew, he was going to fall into a chasm. A hand suddenly shot out and grabbed his own groping hand. Sharp nails dug into his skin and pulled him up

"Need a lift?" He breathed in relief as he recognized Fail's voice. She pulled him up the rest of the way and soon, he lay on his back, covered in dirt and water. His wings were soaked and he felt that some feathers had been pulled. Iggy was gasping for air when he felt that Fail was hovering over him.

"What are you doing way out here?" She asked.

"Looking… for- you" Iggy replied through gasping breaths. For a moment, Fail was silent, until:

"Why?"

"I don't believe you're evil" Iggy felt Fail's eyes looking at him, probably with shock or a look that said -You lunatic! You're blind, you shouldn't be out here!-. He sat up, with a grin on his face when that thought crossed his mind. However, he was thrown off guard when he felt arms around him.

"Thank you" Fail whispered in his ear before pulling away and breaking the embrace. Iggy was staring at her, completely shocked, but somewhere in his mind, he was mesmerized. He felt heat emit from his face and he turned away from her before she could see him blush a scarlet red.

"No problem" he muttered. Then he felt Fail grab his hand again and pull him up off the ground "Come on I want to show you something" He was about to object that he couldn't _see_ anything but she pulled him along, the forest on his right and the pit to his left, not letting him say anything, even as his mind wandered.


	10. Bliss & Battle

_**Chapter Ten**_

Fail practically dragged Iggy along the border between the forest and the pit. He begun to tire again and was dozing as he walked, with Fail leading him to some unknown place. Then he was fully awake when Fail let go of his hand. He heard her begin to climb something. He pushed his hand out to have it collide with solid rock. Fail grabbed the hand that collided with rock

"Are you coming or not?" She asked him, pulling him up as he began to climb up, following her. It went like that for about ten minutes, she would climb up a bit farther then help him up. Eventually she stopped climbing and helped him up one last time. They now stood on a flat surface of rock, high in the air, Iggy could tell by the way sound echoed when Fail began to speak.

"Just a cliff and wall face" she said, shrugging.

"Wouldn't have been easier to fly up, and what time is it?"

"Night" Fail replied, avoiding his question previous to the second as she was looking up to the star filled sky and quarter moon. Iggy also looked up, and imagined what the night looked like now, since he had once seen the night in all its star filled glory, a long, long time ago.

He had begun to be lost in his night sky made of imagination. He imagined thousands of stars, a large, shining moon, and the sky a deep, majestic blue. He heard Fail take a deep breath of the cool night air, looked at Iggy, then laughed. Iggy was broke from his trance when she laughed. He looked in her voice's direction and cocked his head "What?"

"You, you're a mess."

"Well why don't you try hiking through a forest, blind, and fall into that pit back there" he gestured with his thumb over his shoulder, in any general direction, but he doubted that his thumb was pointing towards the forest. Fail let out a sigh, the remaining breath of her laughter.

"I'll try that some time"

"What does the night look like?" Iggy asked, sitting down on the rock to dangle his legs over the edge. He felt Fail sit next to him and lean back to put her palms on the rock behind her and look up.

"Quarter moon" she said "Midnight blue sky, loads of stars, more than I've ever seen" She paused, letting the sound of crickets break the silence as they chirped into the night.

"Oh! Look, a shooting star," Fail said, her voice taking on a somewhat childish tone. Iggy sensed her move her hand to point at the star. He leaned closer to her, to whisper, "Make a wish"

Fail looked at him with a grin then looked up to the sky and let out a deep, long sigh.

"Have you ever made one?" She asked, looking at Iggy once again.

"You know, thrown a penny into a fountain, made a wish upon a star?" Iggy nodded

"Once, when I was younger when the flock and I broke out. I wished on the brightest star that night that I would never have to go back there to be caged again, of course someone had to point out which star was brightest for me" He sighed.

"You had a better life, I've never seen a fountain before, quite a few shooting stars the few times I escaped"

"How many times did you escape?"

"Five, but no matter what, no matter how far I go or where I go, they always find me, and bring me back. Once I survived for two weeks before they caught me but, I was only five then and had been picked off the streets to be taken to an orphanage"

"So you've put up with tests all your life"

"Yup, as far as I can remember"

"Were you born an Eraser"

"Yeah, I don't really consider myself an Eraser cause I'm not as bloodthirsty or what not"

"Odd, usually they have a five year life span"

"Well they only put in 2 percent wolf DNA in them, just like you have 2 percent Avian DNA"

"So, how much do you have?"

"6 percent, thus makes me stronger, faster, sharper, than the other Erasers. Makes me act more like a wolf as well"

"And a wolf personality would be…"

"Loyal, protective, snappy I guess," She shrugged "sometimes shy sometimes outgoing, depending on the situation and... simply misunderstood" she said in a whisper. Iggy had been looking in her direction the whole time, listening to her voice beat into his ears and then fade to silence, the voice that sent his thoughts to a stand still, to purely listen to her voice and hers alone. He broke out of his trance to find that, somehow, he had gotten closer to Fail who was still looking at him. He, unconsciously, leaned forward, closer to Fail, closer to his enemy that was now his ally, closer, to close the gap between.

His lips touched hers, and he felt like the moment could never end, then he felt her tense and he pulled back, realizing what he had just done. He immediately turned away and held his head in his hands, shaking it back and forth.

"I'm… sorry, I shouldn't have, its just-" He broke off when he felt a finger on his lips, a signal to be quiet.

"Silence…" Fail said, removing her finger and leaning into him and pressing her lips against his. Iggy was shocked, completely frozen when he felt her lean into him. For a few split seconds, he just sat on the rock, his shocked expression fading away. His tensed muscles relaxed and he kissed back, now enjoying the moment, instead of being stunned by it. He felt Fail's hand grip his and intertwine her fingers with his, as the kiss grew deeper, more passionate. He grabbed her waist and pulled her closer to him, as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer to her as she leaned back. He savored every moment of his, and probably her own, first real kiss, until he broke away, breathing heavily, as so was she.

His face was burning now, aflame, and as red as his hair, minus the black spikes. His blind eyes were wide and his palms were sweaty. Fail was just as red, but in comparison with her paler skin, she seemed like a ghost that had just been lit on fire

"I-we…just-" she hesitated, turning away as her once ghost-on-fire red face became more like a ghost in a lava pool. Iggy smirked shyly, and nodded in the direction of her voice. What the heck was wrong with him? The one question that had yet too be answered.

_**Love, that's whats wrong with ya!**_ A voice inside his head retorted, obviously not amused. He scowled at this, then thought, his mind wandering back to the others. What would the flock think? Gazzy probably hated him right now, for punching him into unconsciousness. He shuddered at the thought, and regretted what he had done, but he knew, they wouldn't let him go if he had told them, if he had told them straight out and forward, they'd hold him back, if he had told them that he didn't believe Fail was like other Erasers, told them that he thought her as a friend, loyal and true, or that he considered her more than a friend, now at least.

They'd hold him back, stop him, even if they had to harm him, just to keep him away from the 'bloodthirsty, no good, run down, murderer of an Eraser'. Maybe they'd have to borrow some equipment from Itex to keep him at bay, but now they had probably still thought that he was on his walk, when in truth he was far from camp, with many wounds from the unforgiving forest, and he, covered in dirt and grime from the pit he had nearly died in.

His thoughts brought his smile to a scowl, how could he possibly harm one of the flock? What had he done? But then all the thoughts about the flock, about Itex, about Ari and Jeb, Anne, all of them, had gone, and all he thought about, was his imagination of what Fail looked like based on Gazzy's words. She had leaned in against him again, her lips against his once more. She pulled him closer to her, and he wrapped his wings around her. Fail broke away but her face was still close to his. She rested her forehead on his and smiled

"Never thought this would happen one day." Fail said.

Iggy laughed "Same here"He said, embracing her, just to feel his enemy in his arms and to know, this one wasn't going to hurt him. He spread one of his wings in front of him and plucked a feather from it, wincing slightly from the small sting. He handed it to Fail who looked at it, then at him as if he were a stranger handing her a bottle with the word 'Poison' printed on it. But she just grinned, and took the feather, to tie it into her hair, before leaning against him.

"Thanks" she said in a faint whisper.

He tilted his head a bit, with a grin displayed on his face,before he felt her lips on his again. The kiss was brief, yes, but he couldn't say he didn't enjoy it. She broke away quickly with a grin on her face as well. Iggy smiled, before leaning towards her to whisper:

"Hold on" He spread his now dry wings and pushed off from the rock below and beat hard with his wings. He was now airborne, with Fail in his arms, he flew straight up, then turned just as he felt like he had broken through the atmosphere.

Fail, was laughing as Iggy flew through the cloudless night sky, her eyes now practically glowing a golden-yellow.

She looked at Iggy, and all her thoughts were swept away, as she imagined what it was like to fly, with wings, wings of the flock, not wings of the pack. Then she saw his stern face and laughed again before placing her hand on his jaw bone and reached up to kiss him deeply, as she wrapped her arms over his shoulders and around his neck.

Shock overwhelmed him again, he hadn't expected a kiss during flight, and in result, his wings faltered, causing him to spin so he was flying on his back with her on top of him. Iggy eventually got the hang of flying on his back, though not without dropping altitude rather quickly. He came back up to his previous altitude and he kissed Fail back, hugging her tighter against him. An idea came to mind, and he drew back with a smile,

He whispered somethingto her that was drowned out by the wind, but he felt her grip him tighter, just when he angled his wings that made him spin around so that he was once again flying the correct way, then he twisted again, so he was back in his previous state. He did this again, and again, faster each time, and repeating the move many times whilst Fail was laughing. He enjoyed the sound of her voice, her laughter, her words, her, he enjoyed being with her, her aura, more than making bombs, he realized, more than making bombs. He twisted back to the correct way of flying to hear Fail was breathing heavily from lack of air from her laughter and from the rush of wind. But then he heard her breath get caught in her throat. He sensed her look away from him and look below, then she reached up to him and whispered in his ear.

"Drop me" she said.

"What?... why" Iggy asked, puzzlement disturbing his features as well as something near to fear.

"Just do it" she said, her voice once warm with laughter now cold with command. He scowled, but then heard wings beating, other than his own. He nodded and released her.

Fail twisted her body in the air, and landed heavily on the furry back of an eraser twenty feet below Iggy. The Eraser grunted in surprise, then twisted his head to see what was on his back. He was met with a punch in the jaw and a snarl

"Nice to see you again Merc" Fail snarled.

"Likewise" The Eraser replied, suddenly folding his large wings and plummeting to earth.

"Oh crud, you better not be trying that!" Fail shouted over the rush of wind. Merc was falling towards the forest, and once he was a few yards from it, he spread his wings and quickly twisted on his side,thus making Fail fall to the tree tops from the force of the abrupt halt.

"You see!" Merc called after her as she crashed through the treetops "We've learned some new tricks!"

Something rammed into her, grabbing her by the waist, knocking the breath out of her. Once again she was up in the air, with claws digging into her skin. She heard a voice whisper in her ear

"Too bad I can't kill you here" Then she felt Merc drop her and she begun her free fall again. She didn't even reach the canopy before she felt something grab her again. She looked down to discover that Iggy was looking up at her with his pale blue eyes.

"How'd you do that?" She asked, taking note of his blind eyes.

"Hearing wind currents simply" he replied with a grin. Fail shook her head, then saw Merc's blazing eyes of anger.

"Duck!" She shouted when Merc charged towards her, his claws glinting in the moon light and his muzzle parted, revealing sharp teeth. Iggy ducked below her, letting her go as Merc rammed into her once again, but this time she was ready. Her claws grew longer and dug into the Eraser's back as she refused to let go. Her body altered as it was covered in a dark and light gray pelt. Her claws became curved, like talons of a hawk, and her face became that of a wolf's. Fail bit into Merc's shoulder, her muzzle soon soaked with blood. She kicked him in the stomach with her bowed legs, causing him to grunt in pain. Then she felt him dig his teeth into her arm. His wings faltered as Fail battled back, lashing out with both jaw and claw but steering clear of his large and lumbering wings, for fear of hitting a nerve causing them to snap into his body thus resulting in another free fall with no hope of stopping either of them from dying from the fall.

When she raised her fur covered and clawed hand to swipe at him, he lifted his head to let out a piercing howl that was cut short by her claws raking down the side of his muzzle. She bared her teeth at him and raised her hand once again, but now curled in a fist, just to land a punch, but something else wrapped around her wrist. The newcomer yanked Fail off of Merc and held her in the air by her wrist, his wings obviously struggling to keep in the air.

"Now now, Fail, we don't want one of our leaders to die by your claws, that'd be just an insult to the pack" Fail looked up to see an Eraser simply known as 'Claw'.

Fail growled at him once she recognized his face "You want to die? Fine, I'll make it quick and painless" She lunged up at him, dug her claws in to his shoulder and closed her jaw around his neck "An insult to the pack eh'?" She said through clenched teeth and blood "To the weaklings, none of you are a match for me" Claw started to struggle against her hold on his neck, even as she bit harder, to attempt to puncture his jugular, when something stopped her.

She heard a familiar voice reach her ears, in a yelp, then she heard the click of a gun. She immediately let go of Claw and looked towards the sound. She saw Merc, now in human form again, with his wings spread out and flapping, making him hover. He had his arm around Iggy's neck and the barrel of a gun, a Caliber, pressed against his head.

"Now, we'll just be leaving with what we came for" he said, threatening to pull the trigger. Fail snarled at him

"You don't have the guts to-" Merc broke her off

"Oh, don't I? Remember when I put a bullet in your head, Fail? I've got plenty of gut to kill this bird boy and I wouldn't loose an ounce of rest." He gestured with a cock of his head to six other Erasers behind him.

"Our orders were to capture one of the flock, we didn't expect you to be here. Jeb didn't say anything about you, so I don't see why we can't kill you now" He grinned "Attack!" his voice barked the command and the other six Erasers followed his orders. The six Erasers flew forward and tackled Fail, clawing at her, and tearing into her flesh. She yelped as they tackled her off of Claw to fall back towards earth. They followed, and attacked her while she fell; it was only till she crashed through the canopy did they separate from her to fly away from the forest. When she finally felt the ground beneath her, she groaned. Blood swelled from the wounds all over her. It stained her fur, but she didn't care, she ignored the pain that shot through her body as she quickly stood up at her full seven foot height to let out a roar of rage. She stormed through the forest, having to run on all fours since she couldn't run with her bowed legs on two. She tore through the branches, and once they ceased to snag her fur, she leaped over the pit, to land on the other side. She saw the small pack of Erasers in the Air. Merc had put the gun away and now had Iggy's hands behind his back and still had his arm wrapped around his neck to prevent him from struggling. His wings were pinned to his back as the small group of eight Erasers, and one flock member, flew back towards Florida, back to Itex, where who knows what would happen to Iggy.

Fail watched for a moment, before snarling at herself and charging after them, over the vast land, with such fury built up inside her not even a bog could stop her, but apparently it actually could. She leaped over a hill, and felt wet and soggy ground beneath her. The pack was still in her sight but was getting farther and farther away. She ran a few feet before she felt her hind paw sink into the earth, and then the other.

"Oh crud" she said as she saw her hind legs be engulfed in the mud and weeds. She struggled under the bog's grip, but of course, that did her no good. The mud was knee height now and she was cursing viciously under her breath. Of course struggling wouldn't work! The more you struggle the more deeper you sink, right? Well apparently so. She groaned and looked up, to see that the pack was long gone. Now she was furious, and she tried to jump out of the bog but that only got her to waist height in the mud. She growled, obviously frustrated, furious, and sad, which was an interesting combination when seen on an Eraser's face. She stopped the fight against the bog, crossed her arms over her chest, and looked around for a possible way to pull herself out. Her luck, she discovered, was good enough to find an old rope, already tied to a tree, to pull herself out of, which she did. She figured a lot of people had been lost in that bog and more were probably pulled out of it what with leaving a rope behind. But now she couldn't care less about everything but Iggy, what were they planning to do to him? She shuddered, then remembered the family he lived with all his life.

She turned towards the clearing where the flock had broke camp, knowing she'd have to face them and even though they may refuse to help her, they knew that they themselves needed help to get Iggy back, they needed her she needed them, whether they trusted her or not.


	11. Flashback

_**Chapter Eleven**_

The flock had been staring at him for at least five minutes as he went on, speed-talking. Right now they were sure he had reached a record of wpm, words per minute, which had usually been Nudge's job to beat. Gazzy was making wild gestures, all pointing to the black eye that was beginning to form around his right eye. Then when he finally took in a deep breath Max stopped him from continuing

"Slow down, Gazzy, where is Iggy? What happened to you?" Gazzy gave her a simple glare before taking in a deep breath, let it out, then repeat the process till he calmed down.

"Iggy is what happened to me" he finally spat out "he punched me! Right here!" He pointed to his eye.

"Why would he do that? He can't even see you"

"Well he could hear me, and pinpoint my location by my voice. He's getting better at telling where people's location is by hearing, I mean, remember when Angel's wings went all spazz, and he caught her, he could sense these things now" he was beginning to speak fast. Max turned to Nudge

"Translation...?" she asked, receiving daggers from Gazzy's eyes again.

"Okay... I'll talk slower" he said, making an effort and making it audible in his voice.

"Iggy punched me, made me unconscious, don't ask where he is cause I don't know" he said, studying the expecting faces of the flock, except, of course Fang who just wore his usual look.

"I think he went after Fail" he said, breathing heavily now.

"Why... what makes you say that?"

"Well... he's been with her longer than all of us, I mean, for all we know she could've poisoned him or something" he said, frustration cracking his voice.

"Or... maybe because he thought she wasn't like any other Eraser" Everyone turned to see Fang, who simply shrugged at probably his longest sentence he'd ever spoken _willingly_.

"Reasonable" Max said, returning her gaze to Gazzy "But why didn't he tell us?"

"Because we would've held him back" Gazzy retorted "We would've held him in chains, probably dragged him to Itex just to keep him away from her. That's why, because he knew what we would do if he told us he didn't believe she was bloodthirsty and-" he was interrupted by the sound of something large tearing through the forest. The flock rushed to other side of the clearing from where they heard the noise come from. They stared into the darkness of the trees, before a large gray beast emerged from it. Then they were looking into the glowing eyes of the new and improved Eraser, of Fail.

Max instantly stepped forward, rage once again coursing through her body.

"Why are you back?" She hissed "What have you done with Iggy?" Fail narrowed her eyes at Max

"I came back because I need your help and-" she raised her voice to overthrow the words building up in Max's throat "I've done nothing to him"

"Liar!" Max stepped forward. She was angry that she didn't know where one of her flock members were, _again_, and the same one to be lost before, and the fact that this Eraser could've done something to him, when he trusted her, believed in her, when she could've just turned around and stabbed him in the back and laugh the whole time life left his body. But when Fail stepped forward, she froze at the horrendous sight. From Fail's waist down, her fur was matted in mud, above there were many claw and teeth marks and her muzzle was soaked with blood. When Max stepped forward so did Fail, and she bared her teeth, that reflected in the fire light and showed that they too were covered in blood.

"I am no liar!" She growled.

"How can we trust you?" Max replied "When you maycarry blood of one of the flock"

"Take a good look Maximum!" Fail shouted. Max faltered a bit, she didn't know Fail knew her full name, but she quickly met Fail with a stern gaze.

"Obviously one of your flock didn't do this to me!" She shouted, frustration and anger breaking her voice.

"As far as I can tell you don't have the teeth or claws to do this and-" She immediately broke off when Max stepped forward and back-handed her. Her head spun to the side and she put her hands on the ground to stop the impact of Max's hand from causing her to fall.

She looked at Max, then growled, her ears flat against her skull.

"Why the heck did you do that?" She rose on her hind legs, towering over Max a good two or three feet.

"We need proof" Max said defiantly, though Fail could smell the fear scent emitting from her skin. Fail wanted to punch her then and there but that wouldn't help her, or Iggy for that matter.

"How do you expect to get proof? I can only give you my word and physical features of battling with eight winged Erasers and-" she broke off when Max looked at Angel and nodded.

She suddenly had a glazed look in her eyes, and her fur bristled, slightly when she heard a voice in her mind, a familiar voice, that caused her pain so many times.

"_Well now, F0873" A whitecoat scribbled on the clipboard in front of him as he looked over the Eraser standing before him._

"_I've been told this would be your first test other than your stamina, IQ and all that" Experiment F0873 snapped back _

"_Just cut to the chase" she growled. The whitecoat wore an amused look on his face once she growled at him, baring her teeth which looked awfully funny in human form, but her teeth were indeed sharp no doubt._

"_Well... then I'll get to the point" he flipped through a few papers on the clipboard before speaking again._

"_Aha... this'll be your first weakness test"_

"_Is that supposed to mean something to me" F0873 snapped, at the current age of eight she preferred_ _to get to the point and for the point to mean something to her._

_The whitecoat chuckled and drew a gun "It means this" he pulled the trigger and pain rocketed through her body as the bullet dug itself into her side._

Fail went rigid when the flashback echoed in her mind. She arched her back and gripped her head in her hands, not minding her claws.

"Get out of my head" she barked "Get out! Now!" and was met with an amused look from Max.

_F0873 was now at the age of twelve, and in a cell. She had a thick metal collar around her neck, shackles on her ankles and wrists with chains leading to the wall. She was lying on the ground with claw marks raking the side of her face and a bullet wound in her knee. She had a purple bruise over the side of her face where the claw marks were and she was in pain, great pain she wanted to scream, but the pain she felt was pain that silenced her._

_A light beat into her eyes as a door was opened and a whitecoat stepped inside with two Erasers behind him. F0873 shielded her eyes before the door closed and she could see who was there. It was Jeb, with Merc and Claw on either side of him._

"_Come on, F0873" said Jeb, unlocking a shackle on her wrist, then the other. She groaned when he dropped her hand. He was just unlocking one of the shackles on her ankle when he said something that made her want to strike at him._

"_We still haven't discovered your true weakness and today we'll be testing with emerald bullets and daggers"_

_She lashed out at this._

"_No!" She yelled, kicking Jeb, knocking the key out of his hand "I'm sick of this! Sick of getting shot and getting stabbed! I'm tired of being only an inch from death and being your shooting target" She grabbed Jeb by the collar of the shirt with both her hands and lifted him up off the ground_

"_I'm sick of it Jeb" she said in his face "someday I'll get out of here to see the last remains of life fade out of your eyes"_

_She felt pain in her side but ignored it, even though the sound of the gun being shot beat painfully into her ears._

"_I'll kill you someday Jeb" she said feeling another pain in her shoulder and the second ring of a tranquilizer gun be fired_

"_I'll be the one to see you die, and then I'll be free to kill all your precious Erasers with wings" she spat in his face before dropping him. She leaned against the wall as the full effect of the tranquilizers came into her bloodstream and tackled her mind into unconsciousness._

Fail let out a blood-chilling howl as pain echoed throughout her body

_Fail was five, on her knees, with tears staining her face as she looked at the burned down orphanage with bodies littering the ground._

She faltered, stepping back and her head close to the ground and her spine visible through her blood matted fur.

_F0873 was running through the halls of Itex, at the age of thirteen, with several claw marks in her skin. She turned the corner only to freeze. She was looking down the barrel of a gun, a powerful gun at that, and on the other side, was Merc, grinning widely as he pulled the trigger._

Then she saw it, the one thing she wanted to protect, and she immediately lashed out, mentally.

"No!" She growled and put up a mental wall around her mind.

Angel who had previously been standing was now on her knees, crying, the tears washing away the dirt that covered her face making red streaks along her face. Max instantly turned around to look at Angel. Gazzy was already comforting her, with his arms around his little sister. Nudge was also nearby and muttering words of comfort to her. Fang was looking at her with wide and confused eyes, then he looked at Fail who was so close to the ground and so much in pain she thought she was experiencing those six years of near death once again.

Max, on the other hand, whirled around "What did you do?" she growled.

Fail just looked at her, and shook her head, tears of pain soaking the fur under her eyes. Max pointed to the forest "Go" she said sternly.

"Leave us be-" she was broken off by Angel.

"No" she said through a sob "we can trust her, I've seen it, seen what they did to Iggy and what she did and-" she choked, and then burst into the tears she was holding back.

"We can trust her" was all she could manage to say through the tears that flowed so openly.

Max turned on Fail with a scowl. She crossed her arms over her chest as she looked up to the Eraser

"Fine" she growled "but that doesn't mean I have to trust you"

Fail looked at her and grinned "Doesn't mean I have to trust you either" she replied coolly, nodding her head before morphing back into human form, wincing slightly in pain.


	12. Capture

**NOTE:** I don't particularly like this chapter, I think it choppy and pathetic, but there will be more action in the next chapter. I may or may not post chapter thirteen at the same time as chapter twelve but it all depends on the reviews and/or messages I get. Plus 'tanqs' is short for tranquilizers in Fail's term

_**Chapter Twelve**_

The flock and Fail had all settled down around the fire, Max on the opposite side of Fail with daggers glowing in her eyes. They had all suggested ways to knock out security, the guards, Erasers, and whitecoats. They had all made their own plans of ways to figure out where they kept Iggy, they had compared them, and had chosen which one would work the best.

Fail pointed out where the outside cameras were on a makeshift drawing she had made in the ground. She said that in order for them to reach and disable those cameras they would have to fly.

That plan was immediately abandoned since the flock had no intention of going through the front, but from the roof.

So the plan was set, the flock would get in by the roof, like they did the previous two times, and go to the control room to find where Iggy was in the building. There was no mention of Fail doing anything to help them find Iggy, that was how Max preferred it, and that was how it was going to be.

"So, we ready to take off?" Max asked as she stood to look at the faces of the flock, ignoring Fail who was glaring at her with menacing yellow eyes. All the flock nodded, Fail stood up and crossed her arms over her chest and watched as the flock spread their wings to launch themselves into the sky. She would follow on land, though, something in her mind doubted Max would let her go.

Once the flock was in the air she turned and started towards Florida, towards Itex, towards the blind avian boy. Max watched her intently before turning to the flock

"We'll fly by speed" she said "to get there faster, before they do something to Iggy"

"But" Nudge spoke up "What about Fail?"

"She didn't say she'd help us in finding him, she has no spot in the plan" Max replied through gritted teeth.

"Now, everyone hold on" and so the flock linked arms with each other as Max spread her wings and activated her fast flying skill, then, they were off.

* * *

Fail couldn't believe her eyes. She watched as the flock linked arms with each other, watched as Max spread her wings, then they were gone. She racked her mind for any mention of this skill of Max's, then, she recalled Iggy saying something about it once. She groaned and smacked her forehead with her hand. 

"Idiot" she said to herself "Just pitiful" she growled before running towards Itex. While she ran, her body morphed into her Eraser form, causing her to run faster than in human form.

But, now everything can't go her way, now can it? No, for once she parted from the forest she was faced with a mile wide bog with a small lake on the other side. Her eyes widened, and instinctively she looked up, just to see a blur of white that must've resembled the flock, but now, they were long gone. She groaned before putting her fur covered and clawed hand onto the ground and preparing to run across the bog as quick as she could, though she highly doubted that she would make it, it was worth a shot at least.

"Well" she took in a deep breath "Here I go" and she sprinted off the solid ground to the murky bog where she sunk if she stayed still to long, but she didn't permit that.

* * *

Merc had been whispering in his ear the whole flight to Itex, and Iggy could only listen to the cold voice of the high rank Eraser. 

"Ya know, once we get ya back at Itex, we're free to hunt for your pitiful family" he whispered "We're allowed to watch the life drain from their eyes, blind one, we can take Maximum and throw her to a pit of wolves. We can kill them all but I don't think Jeb would allow that, would you?" He chuckled lightly, gripping tighter on Iggy's neck.

"But I think F0873 is free to death" he said, making Iggy tense "I've seen her with you, seen that glazed over look in your eyes when you hear her voice. But next time you hear her, she'll only be screaming for her life and you can't do a single thing about it once I tear out her heart and feed it to the dogs while it still beats and struggles for life" Now Iggy couldn't stand listening to Merc. He elbowed the Eraser in the stomach, causing him to loose his grip on Iggy.

Iggy was falling now, with the pack of Erasers speeding after him. Apparently the ground was closer then he thought, for her struck the earth before he had time to spread his wings. He groaned and propped himself up on his elbows. He heard thuds from the Eraser's landing, then he heard one land practically over him. He was thrown back by a fur-covered hand gripping his throat. He felt claws dig into the side of his neck and the quick breathing of an enraged Eraser.

"Oh how I would love to kill you now" Merc growled, pressing tighter on Iggy's neck. Iggy was fighting for breath, wishing he could gain the strength to fight back, but he was only able to stay still and listen to the menacing voice of Merc as he was sinking into unconsciousness.

"You know what, maybe I could kill you, from the inside out, first your precious flock, oldest to youngest, then the failure, and then I could watch as you destroy yourself so I wouldn't have to put up with you anymore."

That's when Iggy slipped into unconsciousness, and he welcomed it, just as long as he couldn't hear Merc say his threats that sometimes meant something, and that were sometimes completely empty and meaningless, which was awfully rare.

He woke with half his face in a puddle of water, and by the taste, was rich in minerals. He groaned as he pushed himself up from the stone cold ground. But once he stood up he felt light-headed and immediately slumped to the ground, to hear the clank of chains. He felt his wrists to find that they were shackled, with chains leading to the wall. He discovered the same thing on his ankles, plus he had deep scratch marks on his neck from Merc, that were still quite painful. He groaned and held his head in his hands, gripping his hair in frustration as thoughts entered his head.

_What happened to Gazzy and the rest of the flock? To Fail? Where are they?_

Just questions he was unable to answer as he gazed through his blind eyes. He heard the creak of a door open and one set of footsteps enter the room Iggy was chained in.

"Why, hello Iggy" Iggy instantly recognized the voice.

"Jeb..." Iggy narrowed his eyes in the voice's direction. He heard a chuckle from Jeb, since when did he chuckle?

"Is that anyway to greet a friend-"

"Some friend you are, whitecoat" Iggy growled, clenching his hands into fists. Jeb gave him an inquisitive look with a small grin, even though he knew Iggy couldn't see him.

"Why do you want me? Usually it's Max your after and-" Jeb broke him off.

"Ah... well, you see, Max isn't blind" he said, fingering a case he had in his lab coat "We needed someone blind in order to test one of our inventions"

"Don't you recall" Iggy stood up, using the wall for support "It was one of your experiments for a new invention that got me blind"

"Yes..." Jeb said "But this time it's different" He chuckled again, then Iggy heard him open something with a _click._

"Now, just hold still"

"What!" Iggy jolted up right "I'm being held in a cell by people who stole me away from my parents and completely altered the beginning of a normal life, _my_ life, and you tell me to stand still!" He heard Jeb sigh before walking towards Iggy

"None of you give up without a fight now do you." Jeb reached out to grab Iggy. But of course, being able to hear better than others, Iggy heard the shift of Jeb's coat and could sense him reach out to grab him. He lashed out. The chains around him were loose, and he struck his target. He hit Jeb in the chest with his hand curled into a fist. He heard Jeb gasp as his air supply was cut off temporarily and as air caught in his throat.

But then he recovered, and as he recovered, he brought with him an angry glare at the blind fourteen-year-old. He shook his head before reaching for a radio on his belt loop

"I didn't want to do this, Ig" he said, clicking the radio on and speaking into it

"Send me two Erasers, stat" he said, to be replied by a voice filled with static.

"Yes sir" replied the person on the other line. Jeb nodded in satisfaction before turning off the radio and returning it to his belt loop. A few minutes later he heard two sets of footsteps head down the hall, open the door, and head inside the cell. Two Erasers stood behind Jeb who turned around to whisper orders to them, quietly so that Iggy couldn't hear them, even if he was blind with enhanced hearing.

He was caught off guard when one of the Erasers charged at him, striking him in the chest and pinning him against the wall. He yelped and tried to get away from the Eraser's claws, but something closed around his legs, and the other Eraser grabbed hold of his wrist as so did the other with his other wrist to make him completely immobile and against the wall.

"I didn't want to do this the hard way Iggy" He heard Jeb's voice get closer and closer. He heard Jeb pick up something from the floor and dust it off, before a whirring of a small machine echoed in Iggy's ears.

Jeb stepped forward and put one finger above Iggy's right eye, and another finger below and spread the distance between to force Iggy's eye open, no matter how much the blind avian boy fought. He struggled against the Eraser's grip on his wrists and the clamp's hold on his legs, then he gave up and focused his energy and trying to close his eye from whatever Jeb was going to do to him. He felt Jeb place something cold and smooth on his eye, somewhat like a contact lens yet, somewhat different. At first the touch of the thing was cool and soothing, then he felt pain rocket through him as the thing on his eye begun to heat up and do whatever it was meant to do.

Jeb stepped back and nodded to the two Erasers who let Iggy fall to the floor. Once his knees connected with the stone floor he shut his eyes hard and gripped his head in his hand with his back arched. He felt like screaming, shouting at Jeb and asking questions, but the pain caused him to sink his teeth into the inside of his cheek. Jeb grinned in satisfaction before turning around and closing the door behind the two Erasers that left to return to their previous posts. He was grinning widely as he turned back around to face the door to Iggy's cell

"There would've been less pain if you just let it be, Iggy, let it do what it's meant to do, don't fight it." and with that he turned around and headed down the hall, to leave Iggy in pain.

* * *

The flock landed on the roof shortly after take-off. Nudge still pondered about Fail as she twisted the knob of the door and pushed against it. Her eyes widened when the door didn't budge. She pushed against it, forcing all her weight against it, and it gave no notion of letting her through. She kicked it in frustration before turning to face the flock. 

"It's locked" she muttered angrily. She saw some of the blood drain from their faces

"It can't be locked"

"It is" Nudge growled giving the door another kick that hardly shook it on it's hinges.

"Well... then we'll have to go through the front, unless we find another way in." Max said, pushing off from the roof and going over the ledge. She spread her wings to break her fall as she neared the ground. She landed softly on the side of the building and quickly ducked to the side to crouch down near the gate and blend with the shadows, folding in her wings.

The rest of the flock followed her and soon were all on the ground next to Max, low to the ground. They crept towards the end of the building where they knew two guards and two cameras awaited them. Max was now in sight of the guards, when she kicked a stone and it clattered against the gate. The flock froze, and Max's eyes were wide as she watched the two guards turn towards her. She gulped in fear as they lifted their guns and advanced forward a bit, even though she knew they couldn't see her.

"Whose there?" The guard closest to Max shouted. Of course, no reply. The second guard shrugged and returned to his post.

"Could've been an animal"

"I'll give a test fire then, no harm in death of an animal eh?" The first guard said with a toothy grin. He raised his gun, aimed, and fired at the shadows, directly at Max, who froze in fear. She jumped when something stopped the bullet. A hand was in the way of the bullet's path, fur covered, and black-clawed. Max looked up to see Fail in wolf form, her fur soaked from water and matted by mud. She didn't even wince when the bullet sunk into the flesh of her hand.

"Next time I'll let you run through a bog and a lake to get here, and I'll be the one to give you a pushing start" She said in a faint whisper before going on all fours and creeping towards the guards, who had returned to their posts, oblivious to the glowing and pupiless yellow eyes. She limped slightly from the bullet in her hand, but, nevertheless, advanced on the unsuspecting guards.

She peered around the corner of the building, now standing up on her legs and reached up, to grab the camera above the guards head and silently, tore it off the building, making a small _crunch_ sound. She suddenly dropped on all fours, and prepared to jump. She leaped straight up and grabbed onto the side of the building, about twenty or so feet above the guards. She grabbed onto the camera just above her head and tore it away from the building before throwing far over the gate. She shuffled to the other side of the building and did the same with that camera, then dropped to the ground softly before disposing of the camera above the second guard. The flock watched with wide eyes as she did so as if rehearsed over and over again, even as she lured both the guards to the side of the building, smashing their heads together and dragging the unconscious bodies to the shadows of the gate, with a small grunt every now and then as pain shot through her arm from her hand. Once she hid the guards in the brush she quickly picked out the bullet in her hand with her sharp claws and morphed into human form and crept to the entrance door, opened it, and peered inside. She ducked out of the door to give the all clear motion to the flock.

Max was first to enter the building, followed by Fang, Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, and Fail who softly closed the door behind them. They carefully walked through the narrow hall, avoiding those doors ajar or completely open ,which were rare, and carefully avoiding a cameras gaze. They reached a stairwell, and quickly walked up it till the third story. They reached the third floor easily but when they stepped onto it's cold tile floor, they saw some difficulties. There were definitely more cameras on this floor that were more active than the others, whirring around as they guarded the hallways.

The flock pressed themselves against the wall, being wary of the cameras and cautious of crossing doors that may swing open at any time or moment. Fail, on the other hand, waited in the door way till the flock was out of her way. Once the first camera turned away from the door she burst through, leaped up, and tore away that camera from the wall. She slammed it against the tile and was grinning widely at the flock's shocked expression. She gestured to the doors

"Sound proof" she said.

Max glowered at her, shook her head before continuing towards the control room, still cautious since the majority of cameras were still active and searching for any intruder. Fail was rushing them, going a head at a running start to jump up and disarm cameras. She urged them to hurry up with arm motions and kept mouthing the words 'hurry' to them. When they neared the control room, they discovered why.

Nudge reached for the knob of the door when whistling beat into her ears. She felt hands grab her shoulders and yank her back into a storage closet across the hall. She whirled around to see Fail with a finger to her lips to be quiet. She opened the door a bit and peered through to watch what was to happen. A guard rounded the corner, with his hands behind his back and his lips forming an 'O' as he whistled a simple tune of 'Yankee doodle'. He came closer to the storage closet, and turned into the control room and slammed the door behind him, his whistling drowned away by the sound proof room.

Fail pushed open the door with a grim face and bolted for the staircase before whispering to the flock.

"Now this time hurry to the exit"

"But-" Nudge was about to ask why when the alarm was sounded and a voice echoed in the halls.

"Security breech at entrance, stairwell and third floor halls!" It cried "Security has been breeched!" Slams echoed in the halls as metal blinds shut the windows and doors, preventing escape.

"Hurry!" Fail shouted rushing towards the exit door. She grabbed hold of the knob when they heard several sets of footsteps heading up the metal stairs.

Fail cursed under her breath before turning around and dashing into the main hall. She looked around, watching as the blinds came over the door and windows rather quickly.

"Crud" she growled when the exit door burst open and the footsteps now reverberated in the hall. They all heard the clink of guns, and the shouts of men and women giving orders. Fail looked around quickly, then her face brightened, seeming to just have remembered something. She gestured with her hand to follow her, so the flock did, though they were quite reluctant as she lead them towards the sound of orders and footsteps. She dashed across the hall way that held the exit and the flock heard a voice.

"Hey! Hey you!" It shouted, over and over again as the flock crossed it as well. The flock rushed behind Fail, trailing a bit since Fail was a fast runner compared to themselves. They saw an open window, no, not open, but a broken window. The metal blind was coming down slower than the rest of them and before it could make it halfway, Fail jammed herself in between the window sill and itself. She left space for them and shouted

"Go now!" she was struggling to keep it open as the machine tried desperately to close the window and stop them from making their escape. The flock didn't hesitate. Angel was first, then Gazzy, Nudge, and Fang who all seemed a bit reluctant as they passed Fail who had her back arched as she tried to keep the blind open. She looked a Max who was looking at her, gaping slightly. She gestured to the window

"Go!" She shouted. Max stepped forward and shouted above the alarm

"Thanks!"

"No prob, now go!" Was Fail's reply as she grunted as the machine gave another thrust in an attempt to slam the metal blind shut. Max nodded and slipped through the window, spread her wings and hovered near the window and waited for Fail.

Fail looked at her, closed her eyes and shook her head before giving her a solemn look and stepping out of the window back into Itex. The blind slammed shut, locking Fail in. Max was stunned, she heard Nudge cry out, and Angel gripped tighter on to Total who let out a yelp.

"Is she nuts!" Gazzy yelled, his question left to hover in the air, unanswered. Then they heard Fail shout through the blinds

"Just go! I'll be fine, it won't do us any good if they get you as well, just GO!" Max recognized the last word as an order, not something she could choose to obey or not. She nodded before turning to the flock

"She's right" she announced, receiving attention from the flock and the talking dog "We've got to go before they get us" She grabbed hold of her flock, and flew away reluctantly, peering over her shoulder back to Itex. She sighed before flying away with the rest of the flock, at the speed of light.

Fail turned around when she barked the order to go to the flock. She winced when the light of a flashlight struck her eyes. She held up her arm to shield her eyes. She heard the clink of a few guns and muttered to herself

"Here come the tranqs"


	13. F0872

_**Chapter Thirteen**_

Iggy awoke on the floor of the cell once again. The side of his face was cold from the water on the floor and his body ached from the stones digging into his back. The clamps on his wrists and ankles were too small, thus making them rub against his skin every time he moved. His wings were wet and once he looked closer, he discovered that his wings had some feathers pulled. But when he studied his wings through one eye, he could see them, he could see the feathers dampened by the cell water, he could see his pale and pruned skin, he could see the cell, see the chains, he could see, through one eye, and then he took a look at his reflection in a puddle.

He saw his golden earring in his ear, his black and red spiked hair, his pale skin, his one blind eye, then he saw the eye he could see through, the eye Jeb had tainted. It had a gray sheen over it, as if it were made of metal. His Iris had a white corona around it and his pupil was a deep red color. The sclera of his eye had the gray, metal color overthrowing it with just a few white spots that broke through. He gasped once he saw the eye he saw through. He raised his fist and punched the water, his hand colliding with the stone floor below but he didn't care, he just wanted to rid himself of the eye he saw in his reflection.

He turned away from the churned water with his head in his hands. He looked up when he heard a whirring sound, to see a camera, peering at him through a black lens. He glared at it, before turning away and slumping against the wall, thinking of the flock, Fail, the eye he saw through.

"Why?" he said in a faint whisper "Why"

He winced when the door was opened and light flooded into his cell. He shielded his eyes from the light till the door slammed shut. The sound echoed in the cell and bounced off the walls, to beat painfully into Iggy's ears. He turned to face the source of the noise. He didn't recognize the whitecoat perfectly but he knew it fit somewhere in his memory of his younger years. Then he heard the whitecoats voice, and recognized him as Jeb.

"How are you Iggy?" He asked, a grin plastered on his face, one that made Iggy's skin crawl.

"Like I've been blown up by one of my own bombs" Iggy retorted, narrowing his eyes at Jeb, who simply grinned wider.

"So... you can see?" He asked, preparing to scribble something down on his clipboard.

"Unfortunately, yes, I just wish the first person I had to see in years wasn't as imbecilic as you, thinking we'll go without a fight" he referred to the flock, and for once, felt a pang of regret since he had left them to find Fail, especially Gazzy, but that made him think, were they looking for him now, or were they still in the forest completely oblivious to his disappearance. He shook his head lightly, of course they were looking for him! But, that would mean that Gazzy had told them his story, and that Fail had to face them. He winced slightly as he imagined how the flock would react against the Eraser even if they believed her side of the tale or not.

Jeb met Iggy with his smile again, but it had faltered somewhat.

"Well..." he began, scowling as he pulled out a flat panel from his coat. He also grabbed a CD from his pocket as well, before sliding the CD into the opening in the side of the panel. The screen of the panel flickered to life and his malicious grin appeared again. He tossed the panel to Iggy, who caught it with fumbling hands, since he hadn't been expecting Jeb to do so.

"Well the second person you'll see in your newfound vision, will bring back some more recent memories" He gestured to the panel with his hand and a nod of his head.

Iggy looked down to the panel, to see the flickering screen and what it displayed. It showed a girl, about his own age, bouncing up and down in a greenish liquid. The girl had short hair, pale skin, and was clad in a white shirt and pants that were loose and were similar to those of an insane asylum, except, they had the Itex logo stamped on the sleeves. There were wires connected to her wrists, ankles, and head, and every now and then a shock would travel through the wires causing her to make the slightest movement of pain, like the clenching of a fist, or gritting teeth. He hadn't seen her before but he could match the description easily. He was looking at Fail, and sudden rage coursed through his body as he saw the state she was in. He looked up to Jeb who was grinning ear to ear by now. He turned on his heels and waved back to Iggy.

"Enjoy the show" he said before opening and slamming the door shut. Iggy glared after the whitecoat he had once trusted, before looking down to the Eraser he believed in. He frowned at the picture, and searched the panel for anything that may give him an idea of where, in Itex, she was. He caught a glimpse of a window, that looked outside to a large pine forest with large mountains in the background. He didn't recognize the landscape or the mountains but he knew some fact that may help find the location. But what really caught his eye were the digital green words in the corner of the screen.

**F0873: REEDUCATION**

* * *

The flock had flown back to the cliff they had stayed at before, all with scowls on their faces and drooped wings that seemed to make no effort to keep them in the air. Total had his head in his forepaws and he was looking over Angel's shoulder back towards Itex. They all felt like they had failed, failed Fail, and had been unable to even guess where Iggy was. Nudge was first to land in the cave. She immediately sulked to the shadowy back to discover the file they had printed from Itex and which she had left at the cave a few days ago. She looked at it, before throwing it aside, deeper into the cave. 

The others landed heavily and they all retreated to the cool cave to get out of the scorching sun above. They all sat at certain spots in the cave, all spread out and away from each other, especially Fang who retreated to the darkest corner of the cave and wrapped his wings around himself. They all were troubled about what had happened to the Eraser they still didn't quite trust all the way, and they were worried about Iggy, about what whitecoats were doing to him and even if he had survived the night or not.

Angel was looking at Total as he lay down with his head on the cold stone floor, pondering over the recent events. Max and Gazzy were towards the mouth of the cave and all of them were silent. The blanket of silence that shrouded the cave was new to them. It was a sorrowful silence, worried silence, and fearful silence, which caused them to be in a mode between half-asleep and on edge.

Nudge grew bored, tapping the stone wall and floor with her fingernails, till she spotted the file again. She shrugged, no harm in rereading a file anyway. She picked it up and walked to the other side of the cave to sit down and spread out the papers in front of her. She organized the papers into stacks in categories. One stack was a stack of history, one was of personality, thorough description, special abilities, and so on and so forth. She flipped through the history stack first, not heeding the clues that practically shouted at her. She switched to the personality stack to find that it hardly explained what Fail was. It said that she had a quick temper, easy to anger, and hard to convince. Hard to keep under control less with a good reason. Asks many questions and is very outgoing.

Nudge thought Fail as awfully hard to upset or even get a flicker of anger out of her and show it to have proof. She thought her rather shy less she was hyper, definitely not what the stack had said. Then she reached the description stack and finally realized their mistake.

In the basic description it sounded like Fail, dark hair, yellow eyes, but then she reached height. It said she was 5'10" and Nudge knew she was at least two inches shorter. Then she reached to more advanced description. In the gender area it said Male, and in the name area, it said, Experiment F0872, not F0873. She jumped up when she made this discovery, and had hit her head on the ceiling of the cave in the process.

She ignored the jolt of pain and rushed to the center of the cave, flailing the file in her hands.

"We were wrong!" she said excitedly. The flock looked at her questionably.

"Wrong about what?" Max asked, standing up to approach Nudge.

Nudge pointed to the file

"This isn't Fail!" she said, tracing her finger under the name and gender text.

"This is experiment F0872, Fail is F0873!" The flock widened their eyes at this news.

"Then" Fang said from the back of the cave "where and who is this F0872?"

"Well..." Nudge began, tracing her finger over the paper of personality, history and description. She stumbled back slightly after she saw pictures flash in her head from her ability that she took pride in.

"This, everyone" she said in a formal tone, holding up the file for all to see "Is the second new and improved Eraser and-"


	14. The Pack

_**Chapter Fourteen**_

Jeb had watched him as he slept on the stone floor, watched as he woke and discovered his vision, and watched as he punched the floor. But he stopped watching when Iggy turned towards the camera, his new eye glaring at the camera as if seeing through it. Jeb turned from the screen with his skin crawling. He snatched up the panel and CD and walked from his office to head towards Iggy's cell.

Ari watched his father go off towards the cell of the avian boy before turning around to peer into the cell from the camera. He watched as Jeb entered, spoke, and tossed the panel to Iggy. He grinned widely when he saw the teens eyes widen as he looked into the screen of the panel. Then chuckled when Iggy had his jaw hanging open as he probably spotted the green words that told him F0873 was currently being reeducated.

"Does something amuse you?" A cold but familiar voice reached his ears. He turned around to see the feminine figure of Anne. He bowed his head slightly before gesturing to the screen

"Just watching the avian kid" he said, then spotted the suitcase at her side. He lifted a brow at this then looked at Anne. Jeb appeared behind Anne who turned to him to explain the business matters. Ari narrowed his eyes at her, as she lowered her voice so he couldn't hear her.

He growled under his breath, she never wanted the Erasers to hear, and for some odd reason she didn't want _him_ to hear, _especially_ him. Jeb saw Ari glare at Anne and met his son with a stern gaze. Ari scoffed at this and turned around to look over the various camera screens.

Meanwhile, Anne was explaining to Jeb about Itex, Arizona, and the meaning of her suitcase at her side.

"So I will be heading out to Arizona to The Pack and will be leaving you in charge of Itex for the meantime"

Jeb was nodding his head slowly as she spoke quite rapidly. She lifted up her arm to look at her watch.

"My flight leaves in an hour, I expect that Iggy be here, alive and well, by the time of my return in eight days" she said, making Jeb nod once again.

"He'll be here" he said tersely, before letting Anne pass him to head for the exit with her suitcase rolling behind her. He watched her, before sighing and turning around.

"This'll be a long week" he groaned, before peering through the camera into Iggy's cell.

* * *

Fail had been out cold for roughly five hours before she had woken from the tranquilizer dart. She tried to wipe away the sweat line that had developed while she was out cold, but found that she couldn't. From her wrist to forearm, on both her arms, was latched in a thick metal with two sets of chains leading up to the ceiling of the cage. Her feet didn't quite reach the ground and she left herself hanging most of the time. The cage that surrounded her was made from bars and beams, and was rather small and painted all black.

She took the chance to look around, to find herself in the storage area of a jet. There were hardly any suitcases on board and the place was rather small, meaning it was a private jet (obviously). She saw two Erasers standing guard at the entrance and both were watching her. One she recognized, and the other she didn't know of. The first one was one of the 'Betas' of the pack, and known as simply, Joe. The second was definitely one of the newest ones, since he seemed to be on edge and extremely cautious and had begun to grow pale when he saw Fail's golden eyes looking at him.

Joe saw his companions uneasiness but was grinning widely when he saw that Fail was awake. He walked towards the cage she was kept and stood in front of it. He had to look up to see Fail's face, since he was 5'6" and she 5'8" with the fact of the cage holding her up a few more inches, but, nevertheless, he was grinning widely.

"G'evening to ya F0873"

"Don't call me that" Fail had growled at him and turned her head to look at him with pure hatred in her eyes. Her vision swam slightly and thats when she took heed of the small buzz in the back of her skull. So they had drugged her?

_**Great**_ she thought **_just when I thought things couldn't possibly go worse._**

"Whatever" Joe replied, shrugging lightly before grinning again "So... what did ya think bout' that flock you was stayin' with? Specially that blind one" he asked, light dancing in his eyes as he saw Fail's reaction.

She gripped the chains above her head, lifted herself up and forward a bit to peer down on Joe, her face full of hatred, her eyes narrowed and her teeth gritted.

"Don't you dare" she growled "or else..." she looked as if she wanted to sink her teeth into his flesh then and there, on the ground or in the air, she just wanted to cause him pain.

He met her glare with a chuckle

"Why the heck not?" he asked rhetorically "I mean, why not speak of that night nearly two-" he was broken off when Fail kicked him, hard, in the chest. His breath was knocked out of him and he held a hand to his chest, as if to try and force breath into him. A few seconds later he began to choke as air returned to him. He leaned against the wall for support, and once he was breathing properly, he whirled around to glare at her and fumble for a small remote in his shirt pocket.

Once he got hold of the remote he pressed a small red button with a white lightning bolt on it. A slight buzzing was heard from the thick metal clamps that held Fail, then electricity surged from them into her. She grunted and pulled herself up and arched her back, as if to curl herself up as if to try and numb the pain. She bit her lip, drawing blood, and a tear formed out of the corner of her eye and trickled down her face to her neck.

Joe released the remote and the pain stopped surging through her and she let go of the chains above her, exhaustion overwhelming her. She felt as if all her energy had been drained from her, and not even the rage could get her to make much effort to say a few short words.

"You'll pay for that" she growled lowly.

The Eraser just narrowed his eyes at her

"I think we're even" he replied before turning around and returning to his post with the other Eraser who was wide-eyed.

Fail growled after him, narrowing her eyes at him before looking away to peer through a small window. She saw clouds, blue sky, light of the sun, and land far beneath the jet. Sometime during the flight she slipped into dreams, and woke when the jet made a rather hard landing that jolted her awake. She looked out the window to see the asphalt of a runway of an airport, as with people wearing neon orange vests. There were no buildings insight thus giving her the idea that this was a private runway.

She looked at the door, to find both the Eraser guards were gone. Then the sound of something large opening echoed in her ears. She looked down to see that the floor close to her cage was sloping down into a ramp. Luggage that had previously been on the ramp slid down. A corner of her cage was over the ramp, and an idea sparked in her head.

She swung back and forth, putting all her weight against that corner till it started to fall. The cage slid down the ramp with an eerie _squeak_ and when it hit the ground, she was hoping for escape, but the clamps on her arms and the cage door was apparently well secured.

"Be careful with that!" A voice commanded as the cage slid down the ramp and struck the asphalt on it's side. She hit the ground by her back and she groaned as pain rocketed through her body.

The people with the neon vests were looking at her, with wide eyes, but they made no notion to run, but quickly turned to get the rest of the luggage. They had an Eraser look to them hence the explanation why they hadn't turned and run to call the police. Two Erasers set the cage straight, one of them Fail recognized as Merc. He was grinning at her, with eyes that danced with ideas of torture and pain. He opened his mouth to say something but was caught off guard when Fail lashed out at him.

She kicked him in the chest, just as she had done with Joe, but this time, had grown her Eraser claws and dug them into his shirt to pull him against the bars of the cage and rake his skin.

"Where is he?" She demanded, referring to Iggy since Merc was the one to take him away.

The other Eraser had been the new one that had been guarding the door with Joe, and who stepped back a few paces from the cage when he saw Fail lash out. Merc, on the other hand, scowled and looked at her, growling as he reached with his hand to curl around her neck in a flash.

"Mercaine!" A whitecoat that had just stepped out of the plane shouted from a few yards away, not wanting to get any closer. Merc ignored him and gripped tighter on Fail's neck, causing her to force air through her instead of breathing regularly. She clawed at Merc through the bars, scoring his skin a few times before electricity surged through her. Her muscles clenched as the pain shot through her, but she was grinning, which made Merc look at her with confusion.

"Payback" she said before electricity charged forth from her body to surge through his.

He yelped and struggled to get away, and eventually tore away from her grip, leaving half his shirt in her claws. He was breathing heavily, and three black marks were on his chest where Fail had grabbed him.

The whitecoat that had pressed the electric button was looking rather shocked at the result of one of his high rank Erasers getting electrified as well; even though he was a whitecoat who should've known that would happen. Fail was grinning as she swung back to hit the back of the cage. The electricity subsided and her heart rate slowly began to climb down the chart.

"What, in the world, just happened?" A man in a gray business suit and stripped tie came rushing from a car parked a ways away with a briefcase in hand. The whitecoat with the remote to trigger Fail's electrocution immediately hid the remote behind his back, looked at the man and straightened his back.

"F0873 attacked Mercaine-" Fail heard a small mutter from Merc.

"It's Merc, not Mercaine" he growled but the whitecoat nor the man with the briefcase seemed to have heard him.

"and Mercaine attacked back, Sir"

"So why is Mercaine on the ground?" The man asked, gesturing to Merc who was still on the ground propping himself up on his elbows.

"Err... the electric clamps must've slightly malfunctioned resulting in both Mercaine and F0873 to be electrocuted, Sir."

The man lifted a brow at this, rolled his eyes and looked at Fail.

"So this is the rebellious one?"

"Yes Sir."

"Here for reeducation and combat training, yes?"

"Yes Sir"

"Good, now hurry up and get her out of here!" and as if on queue a semi pulled up next to the jet and the back opened up for shipping.

A forklift came up behind Fail's cage to lift it up to be loaded onto the semi. The semi was rather small, only meant for smaller things, like the cage Fail was in, and had many holes in it meant for the shipment to breath. The hatch closed, and the engine started up, and Fail couldn't say she enjoyed the ride.

The semi was obviously driving on a dirt road, with the crunch of gravel a constant noise and the tires going over small lumps and ditches in the ground. The cage was thrown about, but the space was too small for it to tip over. She was frustrated that the door of the cage wouldn't bash open from the road, nor the fall from jet to runway, it just wouldn't budge, even after she kicked at it several times over. It was dented now and she was still exhausted from the electric shock and now the beating of the cage.

Then the last ditch in the road came and the semi came to a halt. The hatch was opened, and the cage was taken out. The cage door was opened by the man in the business suit, who raised a brow at the dented metal. He looked Fail up and down, before reaching up to untangle the chains causing her to drop to her feet.

"Don't try to run F0873" The man said as he tied the chains together creating a makeshift pair of handcuffs on Fail.

Fail snorted at this, but then she turned around and went slightly wide-eyed. There, in the middle of a vast pine forest, was a three-story building with a large courtyard in the front with a wall surrounding it.

"Welcome to The Pack, Eraser training and reeducation grounds" The man said grabbing the trailing chain and leading Fail into the courtyard with three Erasers behind her. Inside the courtyard there were Erasers, abouta hundred of them, and training in hand to hand combat. The sound of strikes hitting wood died down when the courtyard doors swung open. The Erasers turned their head to see the newcomers. Most raised a brow when they saw Fail, some were grinning widely, nudging each other to whisper a small conversation, and others just turned away to continue training.

The man lead Fail through the courtyard quickly, to get into the building on the other side. The building had wood flooring, with red wood paneling on the walls. The doors were all the same color as the paneling and the only way to tell the wall and doors apart was the golden knobs on the doors. Cameras were peering around the hall, one following the group of four Erasers and the man in the business suit.

The man lead Fail to an elevator, went up to the third story, and so walked on. The third story looked similar to a hospital. White walls, white tile floor, the doors were gray and most had small windows in them. But then they turned a corner and the tile faded to carpet, the doors were now made of thick metal with numbers ranging from 1-10 on them. At the beginning of the hall there was a green luminescent sign with the word 'REEDUCATION' in green, digital letters.

At door 7 the group turned into the room, the Erasers stayed out in the hall to watch while Fail and the man stood in the room. At first it was pitch black, then the lights flickered on, illuminating the room causing Fail to blink a few times in order to get used to the light. Her eyes went wide when she saw what was on the other side of the room. A tank, a similar one that she had been in in Itex before her escape, before she found Iggy, before she was shot in the shoulder. A shiver was sent up her spine, and before she could turn around and run or attack the man, she felt a needle dig deep in her neck with a green liquid in it that was pushed into her bloodstream.

"This'll help you relax." The man whispered in her ear, disposing of the remains of the liquid into Fail. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and her body went, limp, and next, she felt herself crash to the floor and there was nothing she could do about it, as wires were attached to her, and she was thrown into the tank, left there as the images flashed in her head, and pain shot through her every now and then when she attempted to turn from the images, to block them out, to protect herself from reeducation. She failed.


	15. The Peaks

_**Chapter Fifteen**_

"Ouch!"

"Shh..." Max growled lightly, her voice echoing in the air vent. Nudge looked at her and opened her mouth to speak but something silenced her.

"Do you have the blood samples?" A whitecoat asked from below.

"Yes, of course!" Another whitecoat, smaller than the other.

"Nowlet's compare the two, best to know now than never" the whitecoat that had spoken before told the other. The two whitecoats moved out of the room below to a lab area instead of office, the taller one steering the smaller one in the right direction.

Now Max was able to turn around to look at Nudge, Angel, Fang, and Gazzy with an angry and serious look on her face and a finger to her lips. She then continued to crawl through the air vent, with the rest of the flock following her.

Eventually they came to a fork in the vent.

"Okay, flock" Max said turning, to face the flock, her voice barely a whisper to prevent echoes.

"Nudge, Fang and Gazzy will go this way" she gestured to the left.

"Angel, Total, and I will go to the right. If ya find anything meet in the control room, find something to cover your wings, lab coats will do" The flock and Total nodded their heads and went their separate ways.

Once Nudge, Fang, and Gazzy were out of sight, Max turned to Angel.

"You know what to do." and Angel nodded. They made their way through the vent, focusing on the task at hand as they crawled along. Many rooms past below them, most of them with white walls and flooring, one with many empty crates, one with guns and other weapons, and about five cells that held nothing but chains and bones. But then Angel made a small grunt and Max and Total stopped from their crawling to look at Angel who had her eyes closed as she probed the minds of the people below and around. Her eyes flew open a few seconds later.

"Iggy's in the cell after this one" she said in a hoarse whisper "but... someone else is there" her voice was small and quick, and before Max could object, she darted through the vents as if she had rodent DNA in her besides avian.

"Wait up" Max whispered after her, and got her wish almost immediately.

Angel came to an abrupt halt, causing Max to nearlyrun into the six year-old girl with wings.

"Here" she whispered to Max and gestured through the vent. Max and Total peered through, to see Iggy, chained against the wall, with dirt and mud covering his skin and matting his hair. He was laying on the ground, and for a brief moment Max thought he was dead but then she saw the steady rise and fall of his chest. Dead, no, asleep, yes, but definitely not a peace-filled sleep. He twitched, clenched his teeth, and made his hands into fists as he dreamed.

Max was flooded with excitement for finding her lost flock member once again. She was about to burst through the vent when Angel stopped her by pointing towards the door where the other stood. Max looked where Angel pointed, and instantly recognized the person as an Eraser. Dark hair, pale skin, dark clothing but no shoes. His hair hung in his face and his golden eyes flickered dangerously as he gazed at Iggy with hatred.

"Can you get anything from him?" Max asked Angel, who shook her head and scowled in reply.

"No, nothing, it's like when I was reading Fail's mind, she was able to block me half-way through"

Max lifted a brow at this and opened her mouth to speak but was broken off. The Eraser turned around, opened and slammed the door shut with such force that the door shook on it's hinges.

Iggy didn't even twitch from the sound that beat through the cell and into the vents causing Angel, Max, and Total (with effort from his paws)to cover their ears from the echo. Once the sound died off, and Angel didn't get any other thoughts from people heading this way, Max punched open the vent and glided to the cell floor. Once again, Iggy didn't even twitch from the noise, no matter how slight it was, she had made, even after she disarmed the camera in the corner, whilst still in flight, which was great effort for her since she couldn't be seen by the camera's haunting lens.

Now that she could see him clearly, Max saw that he had his arms wrapped around a flat panel, with a light flickering from it. Angel came down with Total, both looking somewhat confused at the panel Iggy had in his arms, but both seeming to also be excited about finding their flock member.

"Iggy...?" Max whispered faintly, but still her voice echoed in the cell, sounding as if it weren't hers but someone else.

Once Iggy heard Max he jolted awake and upright, his eyes wide. But both Angel and Max gaped at the gray, red and white eye that looked at them as with the pale one.

"Who are you?" Iggy asked, standing up and narrowing his eyes at them. Angel and Max had their wings tucked in tight, but neither thought to show him their wings since both were shocked by the fact that he was looking them over, actually _looking_ at them.

"Ig..." Angel began stepping forward "What happened to you?" She asked, her voice soft and sounding more like her own.

Iggy cocked his head at the familiar voice and the unfamiliar girl, then he saw Total, and a glimpse of Angel's wings. His eyes went wide and his jaw hung open.

"Angel?" He asked before looking at Max "Max?"

Max nodded "Now what's with that eye?" She asked, a shiver sent up her spine as she saw that odd eye looking at her.

"An experiment, I can see through this eye now, but can we just go?" He asked eagerly "Jeb's here and I-" he broke off and looked at the panel that was now at his side.

Max payed no attention to his actions but quickly searched for something to get him out of the chains, but froze when she heard footsteps from the hall. She looked at Angel who had her eyes closed, before looking at Max and retreating to a corner of the cell where no one could see from the doorway. Max followed, as with Total.

A whitecoat came bursting through the door with a clipboard at his side and his eyes wide with curiosity.

"So it worked, the lens!" He said when he saw Iggy's eye "I didn't believe it, now that I see it" he frantically scribbled something down on the clipboard before looking at the puzzled Iggy. The whitecoat was about to say more when he spotted Max and Angel out of the corner of his eye.

"What are you two do-" he broke off when Angel stepped forward and put out her hand.

"Keys please" The whitecoat looked confused, absolutely dumbfounded as he fumbled with his key ring, selected a certain key, and handed it to the young girl before him.

Once the key touched Angel's skin the whitecoat dropped to the ground with a grinning Angel, who had probably influenced him to do so since she was getting stronger with her strange, and somewhat freaky, powers.

"Come on" Max said eagerly, not wanting Angel to release her influencing power on the whitecoat to make him do things only a child would do. She snatched the key from Angel quickly, and rapidly unlocked the chains on Iggy. Once the last clamp was opened and had fallen to the ground Max launched herself in the air and into the vent, followed closely by Angel who hugged Total to her chest.

Iggy, however, hesitated, before spreading his wings and eventually flew up into the vent, still looking extremely uneasy. Max lead the way, with Angel behind her, directing her in the direction of the control room by a guards' mind. When they had finally peered into the control room, Max noticed Iggy had his eyes closed tight.

"Why don't you open your eyes?" she asked once they were in the control room as she was putting up the vent.

"I'm used to being fully blind so I'll stay that way for awhile" he growled sourly.

"Okay..." Max said, lifting a brow at him as she jumped off the table and looked up to the vent to see her handiwork. They had locked the door, had made sure no one was heading for the control room by the cameras, and were now waiting for the others.

They all jumped from their relaxation poses when something crashed through the vent. Nudge dropped from the vent with a file hugged to her side as she landed on the ground. Gazzy was next, holding another file just as thick as the one Nudge held. Then Fang dropped through, holding nothing but a stone and emotionless face and a small and solemn scowl. The three of them were looking in Angel and Max's direction, unaware of Iggy who was behind them in a corner looking at them quickly.

"You find him?" Gazzy asked, looking around the room except behind him.

Iggy looked at the kid from behind with a raised brow.

"Gazzy?" He asked, smirking when Gazzy turned around and gaped at him.

"Ig... what happened to your eye?"

"I'll explain later, can we please just go now?" He asked, stepping from the shadows and looking at Max.

Max crossed her arms over her chest "I think we all need to know what exactly happened here" she said coolly.

"Here, in this place?" Iggy asked

"Yes" Max nodded "details"

Iggy snapped at this. He grabbed the panel he had been holding the whole time, and slammed it on the desk in front of Max.

"I'll explain while we fly! Can we just get out of here and-" he broke off from his shouts and turned away from all the eyes that were on him.

"Just find her before its too late" he said darkly, crossing his arms over his chest and hunching his shoulders.

Max looked down at the panel, to its flickering screen, and gaped at it. Angel saw it, then Fang as he peered over the table. Nudge and Gazzy both went wide-eyed when they saw the green letters in the corner.

Then, when Nudge spoke up, Iggy was immediately at the table looking at Nudge in a somewhat pleading way.

"I recognize those mountains" she said, pointing to the snow-topped mountains in the window in the background.

"Where" Iggy asked eagerly "where do you recognize them?"

"Hold on" Max stepped forward "There are a lot of mountains like those in the states, how do you know those are ones you've seen before."

"Because I remember flying over a pine forest when we were heading for Arizona" she said "I saw a brochure about Arizona while we were in Tipisco and it mentioned the San Fransisco Peaks in... what was it called? Flag-something" she said."I just know that those are the San Fransisco Peaks and the forest is Flag-whatever, and it's in Arizona"

"There are no pine trees in Arizona"

"How do you know?" Nudge protested "It's not like we know a whole lot about the states we've been in since we've been running for our lives the whole time!"

"Arizona is a desert state, it doesn'tgrow pine treesthere and-"

"Can we just give it a try, Max?" Iggy asked, looking at her.

Max shivered when Iggy's gray eye landed on her, then she saw the pleading in his eyes. She sighed, it was sort of like Iggy's version of Bambi eyes, nowhere near as cute but loads more effective with a mechanical looking eyes in a pleading state.

"Fine" Iggy grinned at this, his eyes dancing.

"We'll go there, but-" she said, looking at the faces of the flock "If we don't find anything I don't want complaints or any mention of what could possiblyhappen. Am I clear" She looked at Iggy who was grinning widely.

"Crystal"


	16. Reeducation

_**Chapter Sixteen**_

Fail had been in the tank for three days and a half, helpless as the images flashed in her mind.

_A five-year-old Fail was on her knees watching the flames devour the orphanage. Bodies were all over and blood stained her clothing. Tears stained her face and her breath caught as a winged figure stood over her. The winged figure was a boy, a teenager exactly, with red hair and multi-colored wings. He pulled a gun, aimed at the crying Eraser, and shot her in the head, no hesitation whatsoever._

Now that image was stamped into her mind, and she couldn't seem to remember the exact memory.

_Nine years of age, Fail was walking down the halls of Itex. She had her hands behind her back and she was humming a simple tune, when she froze to a stand still. "Good bye F0871" a voice said. Fail looked through the crevice of a door to see a person dressed all in back with black wings folded on his back, with a knife at an Eraser's throat, her younger brothers throat. The knife slid across the boys neck and blood spattered the walls, and spattered Fail's face._

She hadknow that her younger brother, F0871, had died from an experiment, not by murder, but now, she thought he had died by the hands of a cold-blooded killer.

_Fail at thirteen, with ten Erasers, in a forest, battling against something in the shadows. Merc was there, as with Claw, and Joe, but they were all wounded and Fail had a bullet in her arm. She advanced on the shadow only to feel pain in her abdomen. She looked down to see a steel dagger in her stomach. She looked up to the grinning face of a blond-headed girl with pink highlights, before sinking to the ground, in great pain._

Fail accepted the image as the truth, accepted it, and felt a burning hate for the girl, for the others like her, for them all.

_Fail was in a cell, collar and clamps around her wrists and ankles, and many claw marks. A dark girl walked in with a smug grin on her face._

"_Hullo" she said, looking down on Fail "time to go and get shot"_

Fail tensed at the memory of that girl, the dark young girl that had caused her so much pain for most of her life.

_She was walking down a hall when she saw a device on the wall. Numbers on it blinked, counting down from 00:02:46 and then it reached 0, and Fail was blasted back. She woke with a Blond-headed boy and a white winged girl standing over her, both grinning widely before she had slipped into unconsciousness again._

Fail wondered how someone so small could make a bomb big enough to destroy her home, to blast her into an abyss, and for them to be happy and smiling about it. She clenched her hands into fists at this, and gritted her teeth, wanting to cause as much pain as she could to them as she could to anyone else who would cause her pain and cross her path.

_Fail was thrown against the back of a cave. She had many open wounds and two gashes under her left eye that stung badly from the tears that flowed down her dirt covered face. Her lip was split and was bleeding, and many small wounds decorated her arms, hands, legs and feet and her neck was red from smeared blood. Her nose was broken and her eyes were glowing bright with rage but fading with pain. She looked up from the cave floor to see the silhouette of a boy. Then the sun passed over him and she could see his face clearly. His eyes were blind but somehow, he was looking at her, as if he actually had sight. He was grinning widely, before grabbing Fail by the shirt and lifting her up off the ground, to drag her to the mouth of the cave to reveal a cliff far up from the ground, far far up. He dragged her to the edge of the cliff, lifted her up to be eye-level with her, and grinned wider._

"_Heres your death" he said before throwing her over the cliff. He looked down on her as she fell, before drawing a gun and shooting at her, the bullet striking her pain-filled heart that beat slower and slower._

Fail jolted upwards, breaking through the surface of a greenish liquid. She gripped the side of the tank, taking in deep and frantic breaths. She whirled around when she heard a voice. She saw a boy with dark hair, tan skin, and golden eyes. He was grinning at her.

"Welcome back"

* * *

"Sir" A woman with her dark hair tied in a messy bun on top her head and with glasses that reflected the sunlight from the windows, peered through the double doors to look at the man behind the desk. 

"Theres a woman out here to see you, Anne from Itex in Florida" she said. The man nodded to his secretary.

"Send her in"

Anne walked into his office to sit down in the chair across from the desk.

"So, Anne of Itex, what brings you here"

"Well you surely know Clyde" Anne replied tersely "The Pack is truly an astounding place, but I need to know if F0873 is secure here" she said, making a brow lift above Clyde's left eye.

"She's escaped several times before, in Itex, and in The School, what makes The Pack so different?"

"Well... if you don't mind me saying, The Pack has better security. Our guards are Erasers, trained by this facility from the experts of weapon and hand to hand combat. F0873 is an outstanding organism, strong yes, but she is weak in numbers and skill" he said, receiving a nod from Anne.

"And, Clyde, since she is now in your hands, I want to know exactly what is to happen to her, and how this whole Reeducation thing works" she said, folding her hands onto her lap.

"Ah... yes, that" Clyde said, fingering a pen on his desk. "Well, reeducation is a subject not to be messed with. It alters the memories of the subject and may change all personality, past, and ways of cooperation. With F0873, we would have to alter fourteen years of memory."

"So you are changing the subjects memory?" Anne asked, giving an inquisitive look to Clyde, boss of The Pack.

"No, no" Clyde said, waving his hand as if to dismiss her words "That is impossible, we are simply altering former memories and perhaps adding some since no one remembers every split second of their lives" he said "we simply add images to existing memories."

"And how exactly do you do that?"

"We take an existing memory, take it apart and add beings or objects of that memory, into a new one that is practically the same as the previous. We could add one of those winged people you speak of, or we can add you, or another whitecoat. Depending on the memory, we could possibly make the subject love or hate the person or thing put into the memory. We do this by sending shock waves into the brain that carry the images we make. For F0873 we made an undying hatred towards the flock especially to the blind one"

"Why the blind one?" Anne asked, cocking her head to the side "Why not the leader, Maximum Ride?"

"Because" Clyde began "she had a fondness for him"

"The Erasers didn't report anything to me and-"

"Because they didn't have orders to report what they see, they just had orders to capture the blind one and return to me. I command Erasers, they follow the orders I give them and follow the orders of those I appoint themto. I gave you ten Erasers just for the capture of the blind flock member, and that was all. Once they saw him in Itex they immediately return to me less they have more orders by the one that I appointed them to" Anne nodded in understanding.

"and who will F0873 be appointed to?" She asked "after her reeducation?"

"Well" Clyde grinned "she will be appointed to herself"

"But thats a risk!" Anne said, going wide-eyed slightly.

"Indeed it is. But, you see, we can't make her past life into one of living in The Pack, she lived most of her life in School and in Itex and only a couple hours in The Pack, we can't alter the place they remember being raised in, and we can't change the way they cooperate to authority, which, for F0873 is awfully little respect" he said, looking out the window to the pine forest and peaks.

"So she will be taught, and she will be under her own control, and she will probably cooperate in anything including the flock, for want of revenge for the memories we've made."

"I see..." Anne said, standing up and grabbing her luggage. She opened her mouth to say something but the secretary already walked into the room, interrupting any other begins of a conversation.

"I will show you to your room" she said, gesturing to the door. Anne nodded before looking at Clyde. She turned to follow the secretary out the door to her room. Once the door closed Clyde grinned and intertwined his hands together.

"We'll see how well she does in training" he said to himself, before the phone rang. He pushed the speaker button and a voice echoed in the office.

"She's awake" it said, making a smile reach Clyde's face.

"Good" he said "Give her the tour of the first level and we'll start combat training."

"Sir, so soon? She just woke up and is probably exhausted"

"I don't think so" Clyde replied to the phone "I think she's strong enough and if not..." he paused, letting silence follow, before beginning again.

"Her rage and memories should fuel her."


	17. Pig Latin

**ACK! Sorry it took so long to get this Chapter up, I've been having some troubles with my comp and the internet, so... yeah, theres my excuse :D**

_**Chapter Seventeen**_

"Can we take a rest Max?" Asked a tiring Angel. They were just now flying over the border between Texas and New Mexico. Max had flown the flock by speed of light from Georgia to the border of Arkansas. She was dead tired now and she was flying at a lower altitude, but she wouldn't given in to rest less she was given a chance, and now was her time.

"Yes, lets. We're all hungry and should get some rest." It was their third day traveling and Iggy was normally red with anger whenever they mentioned rest. They were probably two hundred miles from the border of Arkansas to Texas, but they all ached and doubted they would make it to Texas.

"We'll land here" Max said, already landing on the ground "and we'll just get something to eat, maybe an energy drink or two, and rest for a bit" she said, her eyelids heavy over her eyes. The flock nodded, but Iggy just adjusted the black sun glasses over his eyes that they had gotten for him whilst in Georgia to cover up his eye. His brows were creased and he wore a scowl and had a sour behavior towards the mentioning of rest but not even he could deny a growling stomach.

So they landed, and headed for the nearest restaurant that made their food fast, Burger King. While they ordered their food, and chowed down on it, Iggy grew more and more frustrated with the slow pace they were flying at. It was their _third_ day flying and they were about three states away from Arizona. Max refused to use her power again till they reached the opposite border of Texas with New Mexico which was miles and miles away.

No one seemed to notice the slow pace Iggy ate at, and that he only ate three burgers while they chomped five each leaving no morsel free from their appetite. Once they had finished with their meal, Iggy was about to jump up and fly into the air on a public street with frustration.

Now Max seemed to notice his actions.

"We need to rest" she said "we'll fly once we are well rested, right guys" she looked around the flock seeing the younger ones nod eagerly with approval, Fang to just tilt his head slightly and Iggy to fume with pure eagerness and frustration.

They stopped at a hotel anyway. They had gotten the room for a day even though they weren't planning to stay that long, it was the only choice they had.

"Here we are, room 207" Max slid a card key in the lock of the door and a small green light flashed above it. She twisted the handle to push the door open to be greeted by a waft of cool air from the air conditioner. The room was small, with one twin bed, a couch, a table with two chairs, a small bathroom, and a small kitchen area with a microwave and refrigerator.

"I call the bed!" Total cried out as he shoved himself out of Angel's hands. Max grinned as the talking dog jumped on the bed, and curled up in the middle of it to peer at the flock with one eye. Fang rolled his eyes before walking in, with Gazzy and Nudge following behind him. Once the two saw the room they burst into an argument of who would get to sleep on the couch.

"C'mon" Nudge growled "I deserve it, after all, I did find the files and about F0872" She said, glowering at Gazzy.

"Oh yeah" Gazzy spat "Who's the one who saved us all back when there were two Maxes. Who dropped that bomb?"

"Max!" Nudge and Gazzy both cried out and looked at Max who sighed.

"Rock, Paper, Scissors, whoever wins gets the couch" She watched as both of them curled their hands into fists and played the game three times. Nudge won twice.

She jumped onto the couch with a triumphant grin at Gazzy who turned around and muttered "Girls always win" Before finding a decent spot on the floor. Angel had joined Total on the bed, no matter how much he growled in objection. She was already long gone in the land of dreams, as same with Nudge who gripped onto a pillow as dreams flooded her vision. Fang discovered a comfortable corner and now had his wings wrapped around himself. Gazzy wore a peaceful look as he closed his eyes, completely forgetting the argument that had happened just minutes ago. Max and Iggy watched, both with their arms crossed over their chests and a calm look on their faces, except Iggy, who had a small glimmer of regret.

He still wasn't quite used to seeing through one eye, seeing at all still phased him, but now he was somewhat glad that he could see the family he's lived with for all his life, without people having to explain to him what things look like, where furniture is, whats to his left and right, whats below him, he was glad for that, but he wasn't to happy with the fact that he saw someone wince when he looked at them with his odd eye.

He scowled at this, and watched as Max sighed, and stretched, before looking at him.

"Good Night" she said, before finding her spot near the foot of the couch. She was asleep much quicker than the others. Iggy guessed that flying at top speed tired her quickly, especially by state travel.

He sighed as he looked around the room, listening to the steady breaths of the mutant kids. He saw the glimmer of feathers like a crows, and the reflecting light of a dove's wings. He saw the mixed tawny color of an owl's before looking at his own wings.He sighed again, before swiping the room key from the kitchen counter and heading for the door.

He looked back at the flock when he twisted the handle of the door.

"You're all holding me back, I've got to find her before they do something to her, something worse than what she's experienced before" he said "I've got to find her before time runs out"

With that he opened the door and headed down to the office, with the only room key in his hand. He reached the office to find no one at the desk. He confronted the desk, and rung the bell twice, before a bored looking, short woman stepped from the side door to look at him.

"Can I help you, sir?" she asked, sitting at the wheeled chair on the other side of the desk.

Iggy adjusted the glasses he wore to disguise his eye before nodding to the woman.

"If you could, I would like to leave a message for the customers in room 207"

"We can do that" the woman nodded, before grabbing a pen and paper and looked at Iggy expectantly "What would you like it to say?" she asked.

Iggy smirked before opening his mouth to speak. The woman scribbled the words down as he spoke them."entway ookinglay or fay Fail, ou're yay all yay olding hay e may ack bay & I an cay ot nay and stay it yay, ood gay ye bay." He finished.

The woman looked at the note oddly before shrugging "Guess they all know pig Latin" she said.

Iggy nodded with a smile "They do, could you give it to them tomorrow when they check out?"

"Yes, I'll do that"

"Thanks" Iggy said before leaving the hotel to walk down a couple blocks before finding an alley, away from the eyes of the few people that strolled on the sidewalks since the clouds above threatened rain.

His wings snapped open and he instantly shot into the air. He flew high over the city, and under the clouds since he knew what it was like to fly through a cloud, wet, and he didn't want to discover what it was like in a _storm_ cloud.

Those who would've looked up to him would've though him just a large bird before continuing their walk, unaware of DNA testings and mutants that flew above unexpected cities. Iggy sighed as he flew through the air, breathing in the fresh scent of the rain. The scent of rain reminded him of Fail, since she had a forest-after-rain-fall scent that brought his mind to slow motion every time he breathed it in. But now, it'd be awhile before he caught that scent again, and now, he realized, he could see her, just as he had wished before, but now he wished he was blind again because of the pain the sight had caused him, mentally and physically.

* * *

"and here is the formal entrance way" and Eraser said as he gestured to two very large red wood doors. He turned around, to feel a jolt of panic as he saw that the newly-reeducated Eraser wasn't behind him. But then he saw her peering through a window to the courtyard, and the less formal entry-way. 

Her golden eyes were narrowed at the storm clouds and dirt training grounds, and her aura was one that sent anyone near her a message to get away and to not anger her. She had her arms crossed over her chest, and a chunk of hair was over her eye giving her a somewhat fatal look. She had dawned on a black and loose sweater and had the white pants she had worn whilst in the tank.

Her black claws blended in with the jacket and an incisor was visible over her lower lip. This Eraser made his skin crawl, especially the cold and gruff voice, that made him stone still and frozen with a feeling unknown to him... something like fear.

"Enough of this" she growled looking at the Eraser "why am I here and why was I in that tank?"

"That" Clyde said as he stepped from the shadows "will be answered in all due time"

"who the heck are you?" Fail retorted, narrowing her eyes at Clyde.

"Clyde of The Pack" Clyde replied "and you are here because you were sent here to make a recovery"

"Recovery...? Recovery from what?"

"An ambush on the patrol of Erasers you were working with" Clyde said quickly "from the flock. You were the only one left, and were badly wounded and the only thing to do was to put you in a healing liquid"

"and why can't I remember any of this?" Fail snapped, her one tooth over her lower lip glinting in the lamp light.

"You had lost a tremendous amount of blood and had a concussion" Clyde added to his story "Hence why you can't remember anything after the ambush."

Fail nodded in understanding, before twisting a lock of her hair around her finger. She felt something prick her hand, and she pulled her hand back, to find a feather in her hands. She smirked slightly before intertwining it back into her hair.

"So..." she said looking around and placing her hands on her hips. "Where the heck am I?"


	18. Trust

**A/N: Chapter Nineteen will be a little late since I am a bit on writers block, if any of you have ideas I'm free for e-mails!**

_**Chapter Eighteen**_

Iggy's wing muscles were sore from all the flying. He was long gone from the hotel, probably farther than Max's speed-of-light-flying could take her without her being terribly tired.

Truth be told he wasn't tired, well... maybe a bit, but other than that he would gladly swap his energy with his wing muscles so he would know that he'd make it to this place before the next night.

"Augh..." he groaned, rubbing his hand with his face as his tired wings beat slowly "I'm never going to get there anytime soon" he said allowed, looking down to the far away ground from him. By now it was long into the night, and early in the morning. It was late July and the desert land scape below told him that it'd be a hot day, especially in flight.

He winced slightly when the first morning ray of sunshine struck his eyes, at least the one he could see through that seemed somewhat mechanical to him when he looked in a mirror, but it still _felt_ the same as it had before, it still felt like his previous eye just he could see through it now.

He closed his eyes and spread his arms like his wings. He breathed in the scent of the desert below, only to be surprised by a fresh mountain scent. He opened his eyes, only to close them in an instant as he ran into a hulking ponderosa pine tree. His wings snapped in and heyelped as he fell down through the tree.

He didn't feel like snapping open his wings, since they still felt like lead and his mind was slowly drifting off into a dream world, till he heard the slight whir of something else.

He opened his eyes to see he had fallen out of the tree and was reaching the ground soon, but he was alarmed to see a gravel road below him in the middle of nowhere, and to see a bicycle speeding down the path, and unfortunately for him, it carried a person who was intent on the path.

He yelped, spread his wings, but was much to late, and the bicyclist was pushing the bike faster and faster. He fell onto the bike, causing it to collapse under the impact. The person yelped and fell with the bike, skidding on the gravel that scored his skin as same with Iggy's. The bike eventually came to a stop, and the person and Iggy were panting, their hearts beating at a rapid pace.

Iggy had his eyes closed, and he was clenching his chest, feeling his heart beat as the rate slowly climbed down the chart. He opened his eyes when he heard the person gasp loudly. The person was a boy, maybe as old as Iggy and yet, maybe a few years older. He had short blond hair under the helmet he wore as with large brown eyes that were filled with awe. He wore a gray sleeveless shirt and black shorts as with black tennis shoes. He had no other protection gear besides the helmet and many small wounds decorated his bare arms and legs.

Behind him were pine trees, to the side was pine tree, to the other side was (you guessed it!) pine trees. Iggy was overjoyed that he had found the place he was searching for, but then his joy faded by the boy's words.

"You-you've got wings!" He pointed at me, and stood up quickly, making me look up at him.

I flinched and tucked my wings in, hard, against my back "Uh... well" he hesitated, before sighing and letting it out "You're not going to call the cops are you?"

He was surprised when he heard the boy laugh "Heck no!"

Iggy lifted a brow at the boy's accent, he was definitely native Arizonan, probably from this place as well.

"Animal control?"

"No"

"Channel two news?"

"No"

"The rest of the press?"

"No"

"Then what?"

"First of all let this sink in and" the boy grinned "ask what the heck are you?"

"I'm... uh-not sure I can trust you" Iggy said uneasily, before he saw the boy crouch down to be eye level with him.

"Come on, man. I ain't gonna call the cops, or the press or the humane society, ya know not all of us are like those power hungry thieves" he chuckled and said faintly under his breath "at least I don't think"before looking at Iggy with a raised brow.

He reached out his hand, Iggy looked at it warily, before grabbing it and the boy helped him up "Names Isaac, you are..."

"Iggy" Iggy said tersely as he brushed himself off and looking at Isaac.

"Where am I"

"Ghost trails"

"Where?"

"You're on the ghost trails. There is probably loads of em' in this forest, I just haven't gotten the chance to bike them all" Iggy noticed the accent, and was instantly reminded of Fail, for her accent was similar to Isaac's.

"What state?"

"Arizona"

"city?"

"Flagstaff"

"So that's what its called" Iggy muttered under his breath.

"What was that?" Isaac asked, cocking his head to the side and lifting his hand to put it behind his ear in the gesture that he hadn't heard what Iggy had said.

"Oh, nothing" Iggy lied, before scowling at the boy "What are you going to do to me?" He asked, though, to him, it sounded like a question to be asked by the victim of a criminal holding them hostage.

But this sent Isaac bursting with laughter "Heh, sounds like your thinking I'm gonna take ya outback and shoot ya square in the eye, but first of all, I'd like to get some answers but-" he said, grabbing his bike and lifting it up off the ground "first of all, I think I'd like to give ya a tour of the place since ya obviously haven't been here and then-" he lifted a brow "get my answers to my questions, now" he swung a leg over his bike to mount it "Think you could follow me without lagging behind?" he bolted off.

Iggy grinned, he had to admit, he was already considering this guy a friend, and he felt compelled to follow, so he did, spreading his wings in the process to fly after the boy.

He also had to admit, that he had a good time, following the bicyclist, until he halted at the edge of the forest that broke off into a dry, weed covered field.

"Now here is the sunflower graveyard"he said gesturing tothe large and vast plain of weeds, sunflowers, long dead, and prickly at that. Correction, sunflower covered field.

"You're going to have to follow by foot from now on, since it clears up, less you want to ride" Isaac said, getting off the bike to offer it to Iggy.

"Uh...well, no thank you" he said, landing softly on the gravel.

"Aw, come on! I bet you haven't even ridden one!" He was telling the truth, Iggy hadn't ever ridden a bike in his life, and he thought he might as well give it a shot, since it was obvious that Isaac would have no problem catching up.

Iggy shrugged and got onto the bike, put a foot on one pedal unsteadily, then the other quickly and pushed down, only to gaina push off from Isaac. For a moment he wobbled down the gravel path, till he picked up speed and bolted down it. He grinned widely as the wind rushed past him, and he heard Isaac running to catch up. He laughed, grinning widely.

"Woohoo!" He shouted into the wind, but then looked forward and his smile was wiped clean from his face. He yelped as the bike slid from under him as he tried to halt quickly but the gravel ground wouldn't allow that. He fell over into the brush of the sunflower graveyard, bolting back up when he felt the small pricks dig into his skin and feathers.

Isaac, meanwhile, was laughing his head off, almost doubling over when Iggy winced as he pushed off from the ground only to get several other pricks in his skin.

"That's why we've got a path, in sunflower graveyard, when all of em' are dead, ya definitely don't wanna fall in, like small thorns on the stems"

"Yeah I noticed" Iggy snapped, brushing himself off only to stop and wince from the small sunflower thorns embedded in his clothing.

"Now how far is this place, because-" he looked around "I only see the graveyard"

"Oh just be patient" Isaac said, picking up the bike and offering it once again to Iggy who gladly took it "it's not to far"

So Iggy got back on the bike and started off again, at first very wobbly, then picking up speed to bolt off, with Isaac running behind.

He slowed when he saw a park up ahead, with a few large grass fields, one with a net-less soccer goal, two others who were baseball fields, and one that was just pure empty. To one part there was a picnic area and just between the skateboard rink was a play ground for younger kids complete with swing set.

He sped down the sidewalk, slowing down to let Isaac catch up, and to watch other kids and adults around the park. A birthday party was being held at the picnic area and only a few skateboarders performed various tricks around the place. A few bikers passed on the sidewalk, most of them speeding at speed Iggy would never fulfill if he was to live a life on the run.

There was also a small basketball court, and across from that was the background of a school that had printed on the sign in the front 'Knoles' and across the street from that school was a fire station along with a much large high school with 'Sinagua' printed on the front as with a horse logo.

"Turn!" Isaac shouted from behind Iggy, and Iggy obeyed, turning to head up the hill towards the front of the school Knoles. Eventually a brick wall came into sight, and the sign on the front also said Sinagua on it but inside the brick wall was many neighborhoods and houses.

"Turn and go into the second street!" Isaac shouted as he slowed to a jog behind Iggy as he turned into the second street asinstructed.

"There we have it" Isaac said, standing in front one of the house that had a porch and two stories. Iggy skidded to a halt on the bike and let Isaac take it.

The garage door was open and he walked in the empty place towards the door in the back "No parents are home, and I've got no siblings so you'll be fine, now come on in" he gestured to Iggy before opening the door.

Iggy looked up at the house, took in a deep breath, and sighed "Wonder how the flock is" he said "and Fail" he followed Isaac into the house, to enter a hallway and lower level of all tile. The first room seemed to be a living room, with a couch, two chairs, coffee table, and rather large T.V. Isaac was in the other room, the kitchen, that over looked the den and had a bar.

"Ya thirsty?" He asked, his voice bouncing off the wall "Or hungry?"

Iggy nodded "Starved and parched" he replied, walking into the kitchen to see granite counter tops, a coffee maker, microwave, stove and oven, sink and fridge all of which seemed to match the granite rather well.

"So whaddya want?"

"Uh... water I guess and..." Iggy paused as he watched Isaac take out a plastic cup to get what Iggy ordered "I guess whatever you'll have"

Isaac looked at him with a grin "Sure thing, then once you're rested and I get some answers I'll give ya a tour of the town." He said, handing Iggy the glass of clear liquid who gratefully gulped it down.

Next thing he knew he was sitting on a couch enjoying a rather large plate of eggs, toast, and bacon, complete with yet another glass of water. Isaac sat on the opposite side of the room on a smaller chair, watching Iggy.

"Do you always eat so much?" He finally asked when Iggy was almost done with the plate. He looked up, and grinned sheepishly "Well, yeah I guess, flying sort of works up and appetite" he replied.

"So you can fly... high I mean?"

"Yes"

"Can I see your wings?"

"Uh... yeah, sure" Iggy said slowly, as he unfolded one of his wings to spread it to the side. Isaac was instantly on his feet and inspecting the wing of owl color and feathers. Iggy watched him inspect the feathers, with wide eyes the whole time, till he cleared his throat.

Isaac looked at him, and smirked shyly "Sorry" he said, before backing away to sit back down and lean forward to rest his elbow on his knee and head in his hand.

"So..." he began "can I ask some questions with some answers now?"

Iggy thought it over as he looked around the room and Isaac. He sighed, before nodding "Shoot" he said, making Isaac grin widely.

"Okay, first of all what are you?"

"98 percent human, and 2percent Avian" Iggy replied.

"That's all it takes for wings?" Isaac asked rhetorically, Iggy nodded anyway "How many are there?"

"Six in my flock including me"

"Where is your flock"

"Somewhere in the east"

"Why aren't you with them? How did you get wings? Why are you here alone, without your flock?"

Iggy sighed, it was the million dollar question, and he had to answer it with a story. He leaned back against the couch, folding in his wing against his back "It's a long story-"

"I've got the rest of the day to hear it" Isaac interrupted. Iggy nodded "Okay then." So he began his life story, starting withthe scientists from School whomhad taken him from his parents, tested him, caused him to be blind. How he had met the rest of the flock in School, how he and they had escaped with Jeb, the erasers, Itex, his parents, Max number two, Fail, almost everything, except some details he did not wish to include.

By the time he had finished there was a fiery glow from the setting sun outside as its rays weaved through the trees. Isaac was gaping at Iggy as he finished his story with him running away from the flock to find Fail.

"-and thats how I got here" Iggy said, sighing contentedly.

Isaac shook his head "I thought all that stuff was supposed to refrain to sci-fi movies." he said, making Iggy grin, but his grin faltered when Isaac looked up with a wide smile of his own and a twinkle in his eye.

"So you like this Fail girl?" He said matter-of-factly.

"What?" Iggy bolted up right "I never said that!" He said, trying to make his face look something like bewildered.

Isaac laughed "You're blushing" he pointed out. Iggy noticed the heat on his face, and looked away, to cross his arms over his chest and lean back against the couch.

"So that's why you left the flock to find her on your own" Isaac said, Iggy nodded, but barely.

"But the thing is, I don't even know where to look for her" Iggy muttered "I only know that she is somewhere in Flagstaff or on the Ghost trails, just somewhere in the forest within view of the peaks."

"Gee, that sucks" Isaac said "You could see the peaks almost anywhere here" Iggy sighed at this, then bolted to his feet when the creak of a door open from the hall way.

"Isaac!" A man's booming voice echoed in the hall.

"Over here!" Isaac called from his chair. The sound of someone walking down the hall bounced off the walls till a tall man walked into the room Isaac and Iggy were in.

He had many streaks of grease decorating his skin and clothing. He had short brown hair unlike Isaac and brown eyes similar to Isaac's. He gave Iggy a wary look when he saw him with his muscles tensed and eyes wide as if he was preparing to make a run for it.

"Dad this is Iggy" Isaac said "Found him on the ghost trails over by Fox glen park" Isaac's father nodded "What were ya doin' out there with a blind eye?"

"Uh... well-" Iggy began suddenly taking heed of the odd look he received when the man saw his metal-looking eye.

"This guys got wings" Isaac said standing up with a grin. Iggy looked at Isaac, his eyes wide, but Isaac merely laughed.

"Don't worry, your secret is safe with us" He said putting an arm around Iggy's shoulders. Iggy just looked from Isaac to his father, and back again.

"Oh really" the man said, raising a brow "and what kind of wings?"

"Owl" Isaac replied "theres others like him al-" he was broken off by Iggy's glare.

"How do I know I can trust you two fully?" He asked sourly. Isaac's father grinned before gesturing for Iggy and Isaac to follow "Come on and I'll show you."

Iggy was reluctant at first, but Isaac refused to leave him alone and steered the avian teen towards wherever Isaac's father was leading them to.

He lead them up the stairs and down a wooden floor hallway to unlock a door and slowly open it to allow entrance to the two teenagers.

Iggy immediately gawked at the room he saw, if he were a cartoon, his jaw would'be dropped to the floor, literally, which caused both humans to laugh.

"Now I think you can trust us" both said in unison.


	19. Jasper

**A/N: I believe this chapter is a little gory, so just a warning for those with good imaginations that have a tendency to kick in at unexpected times XD. Plus, sorry if this chapter ain't all that exciting or action-filled but I believe chapter... 20, 21, OR 22 will be better!**

_**Chapter Nineteen**_

An Eraser was thrown against the wall of the courtyard, his back striking the wall as he dived back down to the ground, head first. A sickly _crack_ emitted from his body as his head collided with the solid ground and then his body was lifeless.

Fail stood a ways away, her eyes glowing with rage and her teeth bared and hands clenched into fists. She let out a furious roar before whirling around to face two other Erasers that looked at her with wide eyes. If she had been able to cause that much damage, and perhaps more, just in human form, they could imagine what she would be like in wolf form.

She charged toward the two Erasers, her claws extended and her jaw wide open revealing her sharp teeth. She swung her arm at one Eraser, who ducked, just as she had planned, as her knee shot up, striking him in the face. She heard the satisfying _crack_ as the bone in his nose broke and blood flowed from the wound.

The other Eraser swung at her with his half-changed arm. He scored his claws across her face, leaving behind three shallow cuts under her cheekbone. She growled at him, lunging for him to score her own claws across his stomach. He lurched forward to grab his stomach by instinct. Fail grabbed his hair and pulled down and to the left, causing him to drag on the ground, staining it with his blood.

He swiped at her feet, causing her to fall. She snarled at him before tackling him, clawing at any piece of flesh she could get. He yelped from beneath her claws and teeth. He held his arms up to protect his face and neck, but then his arms took too much damage, and they fell to his side as she stuck her hand through his throat, tearing the flesh, grabbing his artery, and tearing it away from his body. His blood stained her clothes and skin but she didn't seem to mind.

She turned around to face the other Eraser, to see he was lifeless on the ground. She shrugged, figuring the bone shards in his nose had been pushed far enough to puncture through his skull and cranium. She smirked, then scowled when she heard clapping. She turned to see Claude at the edge of the courtyard, though he looked uneasy, and she could sense that he was caught between awe and fear.

She snorted and shook her head "When can I get the flock?" she growled kicking the body of the Eraser she'd just killed, aside to confront Claude.

"Well... not just yet, but we've reason to believe that the half-blind one, Iggy, is somewhere nearby... in the city."

"Why is he there without the rest of the flock?"

"I believe he wants to kill you before you get to the flock, and to have the joy of being the one to do so."

Fail's bloodied hands clenched into fists and she looked away down to one of the dead Erasers.

"Where is he?"

"He's taken residence in a citizen's house, in Sinagua heights"

"and when exactly can I kill him?"

Claude grinned at her "Soon... very soon"

* * *

"He went looking for Fail" Max said as she looked down to the note the woman at the desk had just handed her. She said aloud what it said, translated from Pig Latin to English. 

"Holding him back?" Gazzy said "Hasn't he said that before last time he took off on his own?" he said.

Max sighed and shook her head "Come on, let's go find him" She nodded to the woman behind the desk and stepped from the hotel to look for the nearest, concealed alley. They found one rather quickly and prepared to take flight.

However, all of them froze still when a familiar voice came from the end of the alley "Hello, Max" an Eraser stepped from the shadows.

"Ari" Max growled, narrowing her eyes at him "What do you want this time?"

"Oh, I'm just doing my job" he said, grinning widely "to stop you from going after your blind flock member" two other Erasers came from behind him to stand at his side, three shadows came from behind the flock, and four Eraser were on each roof of the two buildings on the side of the alley, whom would prevent the flock from taking flight.

Ari chuckled "Get them"

* * *

Iggy still gawked at the room as Isaac and his father explained why it was there. The room was large, and the floor was covered in feathers, ranging from a crow's wing feather to a cardinal's chest feather. A newspaper was taped up onto the wall, it was of the time he and the flock had spread their wings in a New York restaurant with a blurred picture of them flying around on the front page, the faces unrecognizable. 

A desk was to the side and it had a large bowl of bird feed, and a hulking book of the various birds of the world. To one corner was perched a small bird, with an orange chest and gray wings, an American Kestrel. It chewed happily on a small chunk of tough meat and looked up when the door opened to allow access to the three beings.

There were picture frames hung all over the walls, carrying feathers, pictures of birds found in the wild, and rough sketches. There was a cage where a parrot rested and to one, overshadowed corner, was a makeshift home for some large, night time bird.

Golden eyes peered from the hole in the overshadowed corner, before the bird stepped forward to perch on the edge of it. It was a barn owl, taking on a milky color with a light, caramel-like, brown. Iggy looked over his shoulder to peer at his wings, and see that they were the same color as the barn owl. So he had two percent owl DNA? Or was it some other bird similar to it? But then again Isaac had said he had owl wings, so he was indeed a bit owl.

Then he noticed that the owl was giving him a wary look, if owl's could actually show expression, this one apparently could. It let out a small _hoot_ that seemed to bounce off the walls and wooden floor of the room "We're sort of, like bird freaks, you could say" Isaac shrugged.

"We adopted the owl from a bird sanctuary a bit up north." Isaac explained "He was shot by a hunter and broke his wing, and he couldn't return to the wild since now he can't fly... so now he lives here. It's pretty much the same story for the kestrel, except he had been attacked by a larger bird, not a human." he shrugged "though I think Jasper has taken a liking to you, the owl." he chuckled lightly "usually he doesn't make friends with new people as quick as that."

Iggy smirked and shrugged as he wandered the room, peering inside a glass picture frame to see the sketch of a king fisher. As he walked feathers flew aside from his footsteps, clearing the way as he walked, just from the wind of the door being opened and his feet moving across the floor.

Next thing he knew he had a large owl perched on his shoulder with it's cool beak against his head. Jasper rammed his beak into Iggy's head three times before letting out a somewhat... happy, you could say, hoot. Iggy had his shoulders hunched and he winced slightly from the small jab of the owl's beak, but that only caused Isaac and his father to laugh.

"Yup, he definitely likes ya" Isaac chuckled.

Jasper let out another hoot and spread his wings and flapped them, in a gesture that he wanted to go back to his perch since he was unable to fly himself. Iggy grinned at the owl before walking towards the owl's home and let him perch at the mouth of the hole in the wall.

"So..." Isaac's father began "Can I see your wings?" Iggy nodded and let his wings spread to their full span, and the room around him still had plenty of room. Iggy heard Jasper give an excited hoot and he saw the kestrel look up from his meat chunk he had been busy chewing.

"Yup" Isaac's father examined Iggy's wings "definitely barn owl."


End file.
